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Category: Transport

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao hold “open to inclusive, progress together” joint press conference for NG, NGD and NSOG in Guangzhou (with photos)

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region – 4

    ​The Guangdong Provincial Executive Committees for the 15th National Games (NG), the 12th National Games for Persons with Disabilities (NGD) and the 9th National Special Olympic Games (NSOG), the National Games Coordination Office (Hong Kong) (NGCO) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and the Preparatory Office for the 15th NG, 12th NGD and 9th NSOG in Macao (Preparatory Office in Macao) today (July 8) held a press conference on the topic of “open to inclusive, progress together” in Guangzhou to introduce the details of preparation progress for the 15th NG, 12th NGD and 9th NSOG, and the upcoming operational work plan among the three places.
     
         â€‹The Director of the Office of the Organising Committee of the 15th NG, 12th NGD and 9th NSOG and Deputy Secretary-General of the People’s Government of Guangdong Province, Mr Huang Mingzhong; the Head of the NGCO, Mr Yeung Tak-keung; and the Head of the Preparatory Office in Macao, Mr Pun Weng-kun, addressed the conference, highlighting the collaborative progress of the three places. Hong Kong cyclist Wong Kam-po and Macao martial arts athlete Li Yi also shared their aspirations.
     
         â€‹Mr Huang said at the press conference that the cohosting of the 15th NG by Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, under the steer of the central ministries including the General Administration of Sport of China and the Hong Kong and Macao Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, has built an innovative co-ordination mechanism. Through close liaison and co-ordination, alignment has been reached in six key areas: cross-boundary events, port clearance, manpower and vehicle accreditation, food safety, green initiatives, and competition schedule. The three places have pioneered a “three-place three-integration” cohosting approach – integrated communication, direction, and operation.
     
         â€‹Mr Yeung said, “Hong Kong firmly adheres to the principles of ‘green, inclusive, open and clean’ while implementing the requirement of organising a ‘simple, safe and wonderful’ event. We maintain strict budget control, optimise resource allocation, and prudently scale events to ensure practical preparations.” He highlighted that the cross-boundary athletics marathon and road cycling events, which will be co-organised by Hong Kong, are signature events of the 15th NG, requiring meticulous tripartite planning and co-ordination in route design and expedited clearance for athletes, spectators and vehicles. This cross-boundary collaboration enhances the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA)’s overall competitiveness and fosters people-to-people exchanges in the GBA. Wong said that with the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge as the race course, the cross-border road cycling race is an iconic event with beautiful scenery and a challenging course as well.
     
         â€‹Mr Pun said that preparations for the 15th NG have entered the countdown phase. They will collaborate with different sectors of society to strengthen the organisational work for the events, enhancing the atmosphere of community-wide participation in the 15th NG. This includes ongoing visits to communities and schools, connecting with promotional activities for culture, tourism, and sports, and launching franchised products in Macao.
     
         â€‹Various franchised products were also showcased at the press conference, with designers explaining their creative concepts. Hong Kong will soon set up sales points in various districts to sell a variety of franchised products related to the 15th NG, 12th NGD and 9th NSOG, including products with unique Hong Kong features.
     
         â€‹For more information on the 15th NG, 12th NGD and 9th NSOG in Hong Kong, please visit the thematic website (www.2025nationalgames.gov.hk/en/index.html), as well the Facebook page (www.facebook.com/2025nationalgames.hk) and Instagram page (www.instagram.com/2025nationalgames.hk).

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Justice Department Announces Arrest of Prolific Chinese State-Sponsored Contract Hacker

    Source: US State of North Dakota

    China’s Ministry of State Security Directed the Theft of COVID-19 Research and the Exploitation of Microsoft Exchange Server Vulnerabilities, Known Publicly as the Indiscriminate ‘HAFNIUM’ Intrusion Campaign

    The Justice Department announced today that Xu Zewei (徐泽伟), 33, of the People’s Republic of China was arrested on July 3 in Italy at the request of the United States. Xu and his co-defendant, PRC national Zhang Yu (张宇), 44, are charged in a nine-count indictment, unsealed today in the Southern District of Texas, for their involvement in computer intrusions between February 2020 and June 2021, including the indiscriminate HAFNIUM computer intrusion campaign that compromised thousands of computers worldwide, including in the United States. Xu was arrested in Milan, Italy, and will face extradition proceedings.

    According to court documents, officers of the PRC’s Ministry of State Security’s (MSS) Shanghai State Security Bureau (SSSB) directed Xu to conduct this hacking. The MSS and SSSB are PRC intelligence services responsible for PRC’s domestic counterintelligence, non-military foreign intelligence, and aspects of the PRC’s political and domestic security. When conducting the computer intrusions, Xu worked for a company named Shanghai Powerock Network Co. Ltd. (Powerock). Powerock was one of many “enabling” companies in the PRC that conducted hacking for the PRC government.

    “This arrest underscores the United States’ patient and tireless commitment to pursuing hackers who seek to steal information belonging to U.S. companies and universities,” said John A. Eisenberg, Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division. “The Justice Department will find you and hold you accountable for threatening our cybersecurity and harming our people and institutions.”

    “The indictment alleges that Xu was hacking and stealing crucial COVID-19 research at the behest of the Chinese government while that same government was simultaneously withholding information about the virus and its origins,” said Nicholas Ganjei, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas. “The Southern District of Texas has been waiting years to bring Xu to justice and that day is nearly at hand. As this case shows, even if it takes years, we will track hackers down and make them answer for their crimes. The United States does not forget.”

    “In February 2020, as the world entered a pandemic, Xu Zewei and other cyber actors working on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) targeted American universities to steal groundbreaking COVID-19 research. The following year, these same actors, operating as a group publicly known as HAFNIUM, exploited zero-day vulnerabilities in U.S. systems to steal additional research,” said Assistant Director Brett Leatherman of FBI’s Cyber Division. “Through HAFNIUM, the CCP targeted over 60,000 U.S. entities, successfully victimizing more than 12,700 in order to steal sensitive information. This arrest, carried out with our Italian law enforcement partners, demonstrates the FBI’s relentless commitment to holding CCP-sponsored hackers accountable for their crimes.” 

    According to court documents, in early 2020, Xu and his co-conspirators hacked and otherwise targeted U.S.-based universities, immunologists, and virologists conducting research into COVID‑19 vaccines, treatment, and testing. Xu and others reported their activities to officers in the SSSB who were supervising and directing the hacking activities. For example, on or about Feb. 19, 2020, Xu provided an SSSB officer with confirmation that he had compromised the network of a research university located in the Southern District of Texas. On or about Feb. 22, 2020, the SSSB officer directed Xu to target and access specific email accounts (mailboxes) belonging to virologists and immunologists engaged in COVID-19 research for the university. Xu later confirmed for the SSSB officer that he acquired the contents of the researchers’ mailboxes.

    Beginning in late 2020, Xu and his co-conspirators exploited certain vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server, a widely-used Microsoft product for sending, receiving, and storing email messages. Their exploitation of Microsoft Exchange Server was at the forefront of a massive campaign targeting thousands of computers worldwide and known publicly as “HAFNIUM.” In March 2021, Microsoft publicly disclosed the intrusion campaign by state-sponsored hackers operating out of China. Throughout March 2021, Microsoft and other industry partners released detection tools, patches, and other information to assist victim entities in identifying and mitigating this cyber incident. Additionally, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released a Joint Advisory on Compromise of Microsoft Exchange Server on March 10, 2021. However, by the end of March 2021, hundreds of web shells remained on certain U.S.-based computers running Microsoft Exchange Server software. In April 2021, the Justice Department announced a court-authorized operation to remediate hundreds of computers in the United States made vulnerable by HAFNIUM actors. In July 2021, the United States and foreign partners attributed the HAFNIUM campaign to the PRC’s MSS.

    Among the victims of Xu’s exploitation of Microsoft Exchange Server were another university located in the Southern District of Texas and a law firm with offices worldwide, including in Washington, D.C. After exploiting computers running Microsoft Exchange Server, Xu and his co-conspirators installed web shells on them to enable their remote administration. These web shells were specific to HAFNIUM actors at the time. As with the earlier COVID-19 research intrusions, Xu and Zhang worked together on the HAFNIUM intrusions, under the supervision and direction of SSSB officers. For example, on or about Jan. 30, 2021, Xu confirmed to Zhang that he had compromised the other university’s network. Later, on or about Feb. 28, 2021, Xu updated a SSSB officer on his successful intrusions. This SSSB officer then directed Xu to obtain a list of other, successful intrusions from a second SSSB officer. Unauthorized access to the law firm’s network allowed Xu and his co-conspirators to steal information from mailboxes and search them for information regarding specific U.S. policy makers and government agencies. Their search terms included “Chinese sources,” “MSS,” and “HongKong.”

    The announcement of charges against Xu is the latest describing the PRC’s use of an extensive network of private companies and contractors in China to hack and steal information in a manner that obscured the PRC government’s involvement. Operating from their safe haven and motivated by profit, this network of private companies and contractors in China cast a wide net to identify vulnerable computers, exploit those computers, and then identify information that it could sell directly or indirectly to the PRC government. This largely indiscriminate approach results in more victims in the United States and elsewhere, more systems worldwide left vulnerable to future exploitation by third parties, and more stolen information, often of no interest to the PRC government and, therefore, sold to other third parties.

    Xu is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and two counts of wire fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count; conspiracy to cause damage to and obtain information by unauthorized access to protected computers, to commit wire fraud, and to commit identity theft, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison; two counts of obtaining information by unauthorized access to protected computers, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison; two counts of intentional damage to a protected computer, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison; and aggravated identity theft, which carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison. Zhang Yu, remains at large. Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324).

    The FBI’s Houston Field Office is investigating the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided valuable assistance in securing the defendant’s arrest.

    Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark McIntyre and John Marck for the Southern District of Texas and Deputy Chief Matthew Anzaldi of the National Security Division’s National Security Cyber Section are prosecuting the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs is handling the extradition.

    An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Attorney General Bonta Continues Engaging with Business Leaders, Hosts LA Discussion on Tariff Impacts

    Source: US State of California

    AG hosts second roundtable to discuss the impacts of Trump’s disruptive tariffs on front-line industries 

    LOS ANGELES — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today hosted business leaders for a roundtable conversation to discuss the impacts of President Trump’s illegal and chaotic tariffs across industries in California. The roundtable in Los Angeles follows California’s lawsuit against the Trump Administration over its use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA) to illegally impose tariffs, and included leaders from the trucking and shipping industries, ports, and small businesses and business chambers. President Trump’s erratic tariffs are wreaking havoc on the U.S. financial system and causing uniquely immense harm to California’s economy, which as the fourth largest economy in the world, remains a major driver of our national economy. The tariffs challenged under California’s current lawsuit are projected to shrink the U.S. economy by $178 billion, cost California consumers $25 billion, and result in the loss of over 64,000 jobs throughout California.  

    “President Trump’s destructive and unpredictable tariff regime has sent shockwaves through financial markets, businesses, and consumers in every corner of the globe — and especially here in California, home to the fourth largest economy in the world,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta. “Today, I heard from leaders on the front lines concerned about the disastrous impact of tariffs on their industries and businesses. These folks are sounding the alarm — and I sincerely thank Los Angeles business and industry leaders for being open about the challenges Angelinos are facing on the ground. As the People’s Attorney, I will continue to fight for California’s vibrant economy, businesses, workers, and families.”  

    “The erratic tariff policies have created unprecedented uncertainty for harbor businesses, making it impossible to plan shipments or investments,” said Henry Rogers, Executive Director, Harbor Association of Industry & Commerce. “As representatives of companies on the front lines of global trade through the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, we need the predictability our industry requires to continue supporting California’s economy and the jobs that depend on efficient international commerce.”

    “Tariff increases are straining essential drivers of the LA economy, including the construction, manufacturing, and retail sectors,” said Nella McOsker, President & CEO, Central City Association. “Combined with immigration raids that terrorize small businesses, their employees, and potential patrons—especially in Downtown LA—these federal actions are unnecessarily destabilizing our workforce, hindering economic growth, and jeopardizing the well-being of our communities.”

    BACKGROUND 

    Attorney General Bonta is committed to challenging the illegal tariffs that threaten California jobs, businesses, and consumers. On April 16, Attorney General Bonta and Governor Newsom filed a lawsuit challenging President Trump’s unlawful use of power to impose tariffs and direct agencies within the administration to implement and enforce those tariffs without the consent of Congress. In May, California filed a motion for a preliminary injunction with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to stop the Trump Administration’s illegal tariffs while litigation in their case proceeds and filed an amicus brief in the Court of International Trade in Oregon v. Trump, another case also challenging President Trump’s illegal imposition of tariffs. In June, a judge granted California’s request for dismissal to allow the state to appeal its case challenging the Trump Administration’s illegal tariffs after the Administration asked that the case be transferred to the Court of International Trade — a motion that California opposed. The dismissal kept the case in California and allowed California to appeal to the Ninth Circuit. This case remains ongoing.

    More information about the lawsuit can be found here. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Minister Burke Welcomes Ireland’s Competitiveness Challenge 2025 Report

    Source: Government of Ireland – Department of Jobs Enterprise and Innovation

    8th July 2025

    The Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Peter Burke, welcomes the publication today of Ireland’s Competitiveness Challenge 2025, by the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council.

    Minister Burke said:

    “I welcome the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council’s analysis and recommendations, as set out in Ireland’s Competitiveness Challenge 2025. I also welcome the various positive findings by the Council about Ireland’s competitiveness performance – including an overall ranking of 7th in the IMD World Competitiveness Rankings – and concur with the Council’s assessment that we must not take our strong position for granted, given the highly competitive and uncertain global context in which we find ourselves. It is important for Ireland to retain its core strengths while addressing weaknesses.”

    This year’s Challenge report sets out a range of key issues facing Ireland’s economy over the medium to long-term with a clear emphasis on addressing those matters within our own control. The report’s high-level actions focus on exercising restraint in fiscal policy, addressing the cost of doing business, taking immediate action on infrastructural deficits, preparing the workforce for the future, and investing in digitalisation to improve productivity.

    The Minister added:

    “This work by the Council is highly valuable to Government. This year’s Challenge report has been an important input into the development of the Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity which was discussed at the second annual Competitiveness Summit this week. The Government will take the recommendations from the Council into consideration and will issue a formal reply in due course.”

    Ireland’s Competitive Challenge 2025 draws on the best available domestic and international research, and the most recent data available at the time of publication. This report makes 19 targeted and actionable recommendations to Government on the best ways to improve the competitiveness and productivity of the economy. Along with immediate issues facing the Irish economy, five medium- to long-term challenge areas are explored in detail in separate chapters of the report.

    This year, the Council has brought forward the publication of the Challenge report, with a view to making the report an important input to the Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity.

    NOTES TO EDITORS

    The National Competitiveness and Productivity Council (NCPC) was established in 1997 (then the National Competitiveness Council) to report to the Taoiseach, through the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, on key competitiveness issues facing the Irish economy. In 2019, the NCPC was designated as Ireland’s National Productivity Board. 

    As part of its work, the NCPC makes recommendations on policy actions required to enhance Ireland’s competitive position. The NCPC publishes three main research outputs:

    • The Competitiveness Scorecard benchmarks Ireland against international competitors on areas of competitiveness and productivity. This is published every three years (and was last published in 2024).
    • The Competitiveness Challenge is an annual publication in which the NCPC makes recommendations for Government on key challenges to Ireland’s international competitiveness.
    • NCPC Bulletins are short and focused research notes, examining specific topics within the sphere of competitiveness and productivity. The NCPC releases multiple Bulletins each year. These short pieces often feed into the NCPC’s main Challenges report.

    The members of the Council are:

    Dr. Frances Ruane

    Chair – National Competitiveness and Productivity Council

    Dr. Laura Bambrick

    Head of Social Policy & Employment Affairs, ICTU

    Edel Clancy

    Group Director of Corporate Affairs, Musgrave Group

    Kevin Sherry 

    Interim Chief Executive, Enterprise Ireland

    Ciaran Conlon 

    Director of Public Policy, Microsoft Ireland

    Luiz de Mello

    Director of Country Studies, Economics Department, OECD

    Maeve Dineen

    Chair of Ireland’s Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman

    Brian McHugh

    Chairperson, Competition and Consumer Protection Commission

    Gary Tobin

    Assistant Secretary, Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment

    Michael Lohan

    Chief Executive, IDA Ireland

    Liam Madden 

    Independent Consultant, Semiconductor Industry

    Neil McDonnell

    Chief Executive, ISME

    Bernadette McGahon

    Director of Innovation Services, Industry Research & Development Group

    Danny McCoy 

    Chief Executive, IBEC

    Michael Taft 

    Research Officer, SIPTU

    ENDS

    Back to Department News

    Back to Top

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Justice Department Announces Arrest of Prolific Chinese State-Sponsored Contract Hacker

    Source: United States Attorneys General 2

    China’s Ministry of State Security Directed the Theft of COVID-19 Research and the Exploitation of Microsoft Exchange Server Vulnerabilities, Known Publicly as the Indiscriminate ‘HAFNIUM’ Intrusion Campaign

    The Justice Department announced today that Xu Zewei (徐泽伟), 33, of the People’s Republic of China was arrested on July 3 in Italy at the request of the United States. Xu and his co-defendant, PRC national Zhang Yu (张宇), 44, are charged in a nine-count indictment, unsealed today in the Southern District of Texas, for their involvement in computer intrusions between February 2020 and June 2021, including the indiscriminate HAFNIUM computer intrusion campaign that compromised thousands of computers worldwide, including in the United States. Xu was arrested in Milan, Italy, and will face extradition proceedings.

    According to court documents, officers of the PRC’s Ministry of State Security’s (MSS) Shanghai State Security Bureau (SSSB) directed Xu to conduct this hacking. The MSS and SSSB are PRC intelligence services responsible for PRC’s domestic counterintelligence, non-military foreign intelligence, and aspects of the PRC’s political and domestic security. When conducting the computer intrusions, Xu worked for a company named Shanghai Powerock Network Co. Ltd. (Powerock). Powerock was one of many “enabling” companies in the PRC that conducted hacking for the PRC government.

    “This arrest underscores the United States’ patient and tireless commitment to pursuing hackers who seek to steal information belonging to U.S. companies and universities,” said John A. Eisenberg, Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division. “The Justice Department will find you and hold you accountable for threatening our cybersecurity and harming our people and institutions.”

    “The indictment alleges that Xu was hacking and stealing crucial COVID-19 research at the behest of the Chinese government while that same government was simultaneously withholding information about the virus and its origins,” said Nicholas Ganjei, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas. “The Southern District of Texas has been waiting years to bring Xu to justice and that day is nearly at hand. As this case shows, even if it takes years, we will track hackers down and make them answer for their crimes. The United States does not forget.”

    “In February 2020, as the world entered a pandemic, Xu Zewei and other cyber actors working on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) targeted American universities to steal groundbreaking COVID-19 research. The following year, these same actors, operating as a group publicly known as HAFNIUM, exploited zero-day vulnerabilities in U.S. systems to steal additional research,” said Assistant Director Brett Leatherman of FBI’s Cyber Division. “Through HAFNIUM, the CCP targeted over 60,000 U.S. entities, successfully victimizing more than 12,700 in order to steal sensitive information. This arrest, carried out with our Italian law enforcement partners, demonstrates the FBI’s relentless commitment to holding CCP-sponsored hackers accountable for their crimes.” 

    According to court documents, in early 2020, Xu and his co-conspirators hacked and otherwise targeted U.S.-based universities, immunologists, and virologists conducting research into COVID‑19 vaccines, treatment, and testing. Xu and others reported their activities to officers in the SSSB who were supervising and directing the hacking activities. For example, on or about Feb. 19, 2020, Xu provided an SSSB officer with confirmation that he had compromised the network of a research university located in the Southern District of Texas. On or about Feb. 22, 2020, the SSSB officer directed Xu to target and access specific email accounts (mailboxes) belonging to virologists and immunologists engaged in COVID-19 research for the university. Xu later confirmed for the SSSB officer that he acquired the contents of the researchers’ mailboxes.

    Beginning in late 2020, Xu and his co-conspirators exploited certain vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server, a widely-used Microsoft product for sending, receiving, and storing email messages. Their exploitation of Microsoft Exchange Server was at the forefront of a massive campaign targeting thousands of computers worldwide and known publicly as “HAFNIUM.” In March 2021, Microsoft publicly disclosed the intrusion campaign by state-sponsored hackers operating out of China. Throughout March 2021, Microsoft and other industry partners released detection tools, patches, and other information to assist victim entities in identifying and mitigating this cyber incident. Additionally, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released a Joint Advisory on Compromise of Microsoft Exchange Server on March 10, 2021. However, by the end of March 2021, hundreds of web shells remained on certain U.S.-based computers running Microsoft Exchange Server software. In April 2021, the Justice Department announced a court-authorized operation to remediate hundreds of computers in the United States made vulnerable by HAFNIUM actors. In July 2021, the United States and foreign partners attributed the HAFNIUM campaign to the PRC’s MSS.

    Among the victims of Xu’s exploitation of Microsoft Exchange Server were another university located in the Southern District of Texas and a law firm with offices worldwide, including in Washington, D.C. After exploiting computers running Microsoft Exchange Server, Xu and his co-conspirators installed web shells on them to enable their remote administration. These web shells were specific to HAFNIUM actors at the time. As with the earlier COVID-19 research intrusions, Xu and Zhang worked together on the HAFNIUM intrusions, under the supervision and direction of SSSB officers. For example, on or about Jan. 30, 2021, Xu confirmed to Zhang that he had compromised the other university’s network. Later, on or about Feb. 28, 2021, Xu updated a SSSB officer on his successful intrusions. This SSSB officer then directed Xu to obtain a list of other, successful intrusions from a second SSSB officer. Unauthorized access to the law firm’s network allowed Xu and his co-conspirators to steal information from mailboxes and search them for information regarding specific U.S. policy makers and government agencies. Their search terms included “Chinese sources,” “MSS,” and “HongKong.”

    The announcement of charges against Xu is the latest describing the PRC’s use of an extensive network of private companies and contractors in China to hack and steal information in a manner that obscured the PRC government’s involvement. Operating from their safe haven and motivated by profit, this network of private companies and contractors in China cast a wide net to identify vulnerable computers, exploit those computers, and then identify information that it could sell directly or indirectly to the PRC government. This largely indiscriminate approach results in more victims in the United States and elsewhere, more systems worldwide left vulnerable to future exploitation by third parties, and more stolen information, often of no interest to the PRC government and, therefore, sold to other third parties.

    Xu is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and two counts of wire fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count; conspiracy to cause damage to and obtain information by unauthorized access to protected computers, to commit wire fraud, and to commit identity theft, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison; two counts of obtaining information by unauthorized access to protected computers, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison; two counts of intentional damage to a protected computer, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison; and aggravated identity theft, which carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison. Zhang Yu, remains at large. Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324).

    The FBI’s Houston Field Office is investigating the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided valuable assistance in securing the defendant’s arrest.

    Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark McIntyre and John Marck for the Southern District of Texas and Deputy Chief Matthew Anzaldi of the National Security Division’s National Security Cyber Section are prosecuting the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs is handling the extradition.

    An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: UNHRC in Geneva Adopts Qatari Proposed Resolution on Empowering Women and Girls in, through Sport

    Source: Government of Qatar

    Geneva, July 07, 2025

    The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva unanimously adopted the resolution on empowering women and girls in and through sport, proposed by the State of Qatar on behalf of the core group that includes Indonesia and Morocco, as part of the Council’s 59th session.

    The resolution received broad support within the Human Rights Council, with 71 countries from various geographic groups joining as co-sponsors.

    While presenting the resolution for adoption, HE Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the UN Office in Geneva Dr. Hend Abdulrahman Al Muftah emphasized that sports, being a universal language, holds tremendous potential for promoting human rights, fostering values of tolerance, and contributing to sustainable development.

    Her Excellency highlighted the many benefits of women and girls’ participation in sports, whether in terms of physical and mental health or personal and professional development, versus the persistent challenges which include low participation, underrepresentation in leadership positions, pay gaps, and limited media coverage.

    She said that the resolution carries a global message, which is that dignity and equality are indivisible and that progress in sports leads to progress in other aspects of life, adding that the resolution includes provisions for holding a panel discussion during the Council’s 62nd session in June 2026, as well as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights preparing a report to be presented at the 65th session in June 2027, coinciding with the FIFA Women’s World Cup, which will serve as a significant international opportunity to advance the empowerment of women in major sporting events.

    Her Excellency affirmed that during the drafting process, the core group was committed to adopting a constructive and consensual approach by making intensive efforts in both formal and informal consultations to accommodate as many views and positions as possible.

    She expressed gratitude to all countries and non-governmental organizations for their valuable contributions during these consultations, stressing that multilateral forums should remain spaces for mutual understanding, respect, and consensus-building.

    During the resolution’s adoption session, several country representatives, speaking on behalf of their geographic groups and in their national capacities, delivered statements in support of the resolution. They all commended the initiative and fully endorsed the resolution and its objectives.

    They also praised the State of Qatar’s constructive and objective approach in leading worthwhile and transparent discussions, which led to consensus on this important issue, calling on the Council to adopt the resolution unanimously.

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Qatar Stresses Commitment to Concerted Int. Efforts to Empower Afghan People to Build Peaceful State

    Source: Government of Qatar

    New York, July 07, 2025

    The State of Qatar has reaffirmed its commitment to concerted international efforts to ensure empowering the Afghan people to build a state characterized by peace, stability, and development.

    This came in the State of Qatar’s statement at the United Nations General Assembly’s plenary meeting in New York on agenda item “The Situation in Afghanistan,” delivered by HE Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al-Thani.

    Her Excellency stressed that the State of Qatar’s efforts to support Afghanistan in facing the significant challenges along its path to achieving peace and stability continue, noting that these efforts began with the establishment of the Doha peace process for Afghanistan, in addition to hosting a series of dialogues as part of an inclusive political process involving all segments of Afghan society, culminating in the 2020 peace agreement between the United States and the Taliban.

    She also highlighted the State of Qatar’s role in supporting and facilitating dialogue between the United Nations, concerned countries, and the Afghan caretaker government, including hosting the UN-led Doha Process, noting that these efforts aim to adopt a comprehensive approach to facilitate more coherent and organized international engagement, helping to create the conditions necessary for Afghanistan to achieve internal peace, foster good neighborly relations, reintegrate into the international community, and meet its global obligations.

    Her Excellency noted that, to achieve these goals on the ground, the Doha Process has led to the formation of specialized working groups based on priority areas identified in the independent assessment of Afghanistan.

    She referred to the third meeting of the counter-narcotics working group held in Doha recently, which aimed to review and enhance cooperation to combat drugs and their regional and global impacts as well as the second meeting of the private sector working group, held on July 1, which aimed to support this vital sector’s engagement in the economy.

    Her Excellency pointed to the continuing multifaceted challenges, which require international support and an integrated approach involving relevant political, humanitarian, and development actors in order to build and sustain peace, adding that this includes strengthening international assistance in line with humanitarian principles, addressing natural disasters such as droughts and floods, creating opportunities for economic recovery and sustainable development, and improving access to education for all.

    Her Excellency also underscored the State of Qatar’s efforts, in cooperation with UN entities, in providing humanitarian support to the Afghan people, including food assistance, support for basic healthcare programs, improving Afghan children’s access to education, offering scholarships, supporting economic empowerment programs for Afghan women to increase their resilience to crises, and programs to empower Afghan youth-both male and female.

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI: Ingenio Care Closes Pre-Seed Funding to Launch AI-Enabled, Patient-Centric Digital Health Network — Pilots Now Open for IPAs, Employers, and Health Plans

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    OAK BROOK, Ill., July 08, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ingenio Care, an AI-enabled, patient-centric digital health network, today announced the successful close of its pre-seed funding round. The company is preparing to launch pilot programs with Independent Physician Associations (IPAs), self-insured employers, and health plans, introducing a platform designed to resolve the systemic challenges of access, fragmentation, and administrative inefficiency in U.S. healthcare.

    A Smarter Network for a System in Crisis

    The healthcare ecosystem is strained like never before: patients face weeks-long wait times, providers are bogged down by administrative burdens, and payers are scaling back services amid rising costs. Even once-promising centralized care models like Oak Street Health and VillageMD are facing major challenges, exposing the limits of top-down disruption.

    Ingenio Care offers a fundamentally different model: a scalable digital health network that enhances existing infrastructure with real-time data, automation, and seamless coordination — placing the patient at the center.

    “We are no longer just talking about inefficiency — we’re talking about dysfunction,” said Alex Kumar, Founder and CEO of Ingenio Care. “Ingenio Care was built to be the connective layer the system desperately needs — linking patients, providers, and payers into a smarter, faster, and more responsive network.”

    The Ingenio Care App: Patient-Centric and System-Aware

    At the core of Ingenio Care is a first-of-its-kind patient app that gives individuals the ability to manage their care and costs through a single digital experience:

    • Instant access to available, in-network providers across primary, specialty, and behavioral care
    • Seamless care navigation including referrals, follow-ups, and care plan coordination
    • Cost transparency to help patients make informed decisions
    • Continuity of care even across insurance or employer changes — a first in U.S. healthcare
    • Upcoming integration with credit cards for identity verification, reducing fraud and intake errors

    “Patients shouldn’t have to start over every time they change plans or employers,” said Kumar. “We’ve built the first system that follows the patient — not the paperwork.”

    The Ingenio Care platform reduces the frequency of future ER visits and hospital admissions, increasing patient outcomes and satisfaction while simultaneously reducing expenditure from providers and systems.

    Reducing Wait Times by Unlocking Capacity

    By intelligently matching patients with underutilized providers and increasing provider efficiency, Ingenio Care believes it can cut wait times by 30% to 50%. The platform identifies availability in real time and guides patients toward timely, appropriate care — improving both experience and outcomes.

    “There’s untapped capacity in the system today,” said Kumar. “Our platform unlocks it by reducing friction, connecting the dots, and giving providers better tools to manage their day-to-day work.”

    Network Effects: Growing Value for All Participants

    As the Ingenio Care network expands, all stakeholders benefit — including providers. Physicians and care organizations gain access to a natural flow of in-network patients actively navigating through the platform. This reduces the need for expensive marketing and patient acquisition campaigns, while simultaneously lowering administrative overhead through automation and integration.

    “Ingenio Care brings patients to us more efficiently — and helps us serve them better,” said Dr. Yogi Ahluwalia, Chair of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai Hospital Medical Center of Chicago. “It’s the kind of infrastructure that scales with us, not against us.”

    “We’re excited to be part of something that enhances care without disrupting how we practice,” added Dr. Pradeep Thapar, owner of Premier Psychiatry. “This is what the next generation of clinical operations should look like.”

    Pilots Now Open

    Ingenio Care is enrolling pilot sites across provider networks, employers, and health plans. Initial pilots will measure improvements in appointment access, care navigation, administrative burden, and cost-effectiveness.

    To learn more or join a pilot program, visit www.ingeniocare.com or contact Ingenio Care:

    Contact:
    Rohin Gopalka
    rohin.gopalka@ingeniocare.com

    About Ingenio Care
    Ingenio Care is an AI-enabled, patient-centric digital health network that empowers patients, providers, and payers through intelligent access, real-time coordination, and simplified infrastructure. With a first-of-its-kind app and a platform designed for real-world scalability, Ingenio Care delivers the tools to restore healthcare’s promise — better care, smarter systems, and shared value.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Vicor Corporation to Hold Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call and Webcast on July 22, 2025

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    ANDOVER, Mass., July 08, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Vicor Corporation (NASDAQ: VICR) announced today it will hold its second quarter 2025 earnings conference call and webcast on Tuesday, July 22, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. (Eastern). Prepared remarks regarding the company’s financial and operational results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2025 will be followed by a question and answer period with Patrizio Vinciarelli, Chief Executive Officer, Jim Schmidt, Chief Financial Officer, and Phil Davies, Corporate Vice President, Global Sales and Marketing.

    Results for the second quarter will be released over GlobeNewswire at the close of the NASDAQ Market Session on July 22, 2025, and the press release and a summary of the company’s financial statements will be available shortly thereafter on the Investor Relations page of Vicor’s website.

    Vicor encourages investors and analysts who intend to ask questions via the conference call to register with Notified, the service provider hosting the conference call. Those registering on Notified’s website will receive dial-in info and a unique PIN to join the call as well as an email confirmation with the details. Registration may be completed at any time prior to 5:00 p.m. on July 22, 2025.

    For those parties interested in listen-only mode, the conference call will be webcast via a link that will be posted on the Investor Relations page of Vicor’s website prior to the conference call. Please access the website at least 15 minutes prior to the conference call to register and, if necessary, download and install any required software.

    For those who cannot participate in the live conference call, a webcast replay of the conference call will also be available on the Investor Relations page of Vicor’s website.

    About Vicor

    Vicor Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and markets modular power components and complete power systems based upon a portfolio of patented technologies. Headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts, Vicor sells its products to the power systems market, including enterprise and high performance computing, industrial equipment and automation, telecommunications and network infrastructure, vehicles and transportation, and aerospace and defense electronics.

    www.vicorpower.com

    For further information contact:
    Vicor Corporation
    James F. Schmidt
    Chief Financial Officer
    Office: (978) 470-2900
    Email: invrel@vicorpower.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Practical cooperation between China and Russia is constantly deepening – Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –

    An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

    Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

    Moscow, July 8 (Xinhua) — Chinese-Russian practical cooperation is constantly deepening, Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui said in a written interview with the Rossiya Segodnya news agency on Tuesday on the sidelines of the 9th China-Russia EXPO, which is being held from July 7 to 10 in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg.

    “Chinese-Russian practical cooperation in trade, energy, minerals, agriculture, etc. is constantly deepening. In recent years, new growth points in trade and economic cooperation have become the automotive industry, industrial parks and economic zones, digital economy and artificial intelligence,” the ambassador noted.

    Zhang Hanhui emphasized that under the strategic leadership of the heads of state, Chinese-Russian trade and economic cooperation maintains favorable development dynamics. He recalled that by the end of 2024, bilateral trade, having overcome the influence of numerous unfavorable factors, generally maintained the trend of stable growth with an increase in quality and again reached record levels. According to him, this fully demonstrated the sustainability and viability of Chinese-Russian trade and economic cooperation.

    “Since the beginning of this year, China-Russia trade has been facing more complex external factors and pressures. But thanks to the joint efforts of both sides, bilateral trade has generally remained stable and its quality has continued to improve,” the Chinese diplomat added, pointing out that the two sides will continue to strengthen coordination and interaction, and unleash the potential of cooperation to ensure stable growth of bilateral trade.

    The PRC Ambassador to the Russian Federation noted that contacts between enterprises of the two countries are becoming increasingly close. “In recent years, Chinese companies, using emerging opportunities and positively assessing the prospects for the development of the Russian market, are actively satisfying Russia’s growing domestic demand, creating new jobs and contributing to the country’s socio-economic development,” he noted.

    According to Zhang Hanhui, the updated bilateral agreement on the promotion and protection of capital investments signed in May was good news for the governments and business circles of China and Russia. The diplomat is confident that with the improvement of the business climate, more and more Chinese enterprises will enter the Russian market.

    As the ambassador explained, the Made in Russia festival, which has already been held in China five times, attracts increased attention from Chinese consumers. Such well-known Russian products as chocolate, ice cream, honey and vodka are very popular with them. “In the future, we welcome the entry of new high-quality products with the Made in Russia brand into the Chinese market,” Zhang Hanhui added.

    Speaking about cooperation between China and Russia in the gas sector, he stressed that this cooperation is developing successfully. The Chinese diplomat cited data according to which from January to May 2025, pipeline gas imports from Russia to China amounted to 16.14 billion cubic meters, which is 29.4 percent more than in the same period last year. “The eastern route of the Power of Siberia gas pipeline project is functioning stably and will reach its design capacity by the end of this year,” he said, noting that the relevant departments of the two countries are currently negotiating the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline project.

    The Chinese diplomat also spoke about the strategic importance of developing the Northern Sea Route (NSR). He pointed out that in recent years, China and Russia have been actively developing cooperation in developing this route. Last year, a bilateral subcommittee on cooperation on the NSR was created, and the first meeting was already held, at which target indicators for cargo turnover were agreed. “The parties will implement the agreements reached in order to further advance cooperation in developing the NSR,” Zhang Hanhui assured.

    The Ambassador believes that China and Russia should continue to work on developing logistics and transport corridors, unifying certification standards and simplifying trade procedures in the interests of creating a stable and favorable business environment. –0–

    Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source of the information. It is an accurate report of what the source claims and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    .

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senator Collins Announces the Nomination of Joshua Dunlap to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Maine Susan Collins

    Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Susan Collins announced today that Joshua Dunlap, of Scarborough, Maine, has been nominated by President Donald Trump to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. 

    In February, Senator Collins established a Federal Appointments Advisory Committee to evaluate candidates for Senate-confirmed positions in Maine. As the senior Republican member of Maine’s congressional delegation, Senator Collins is advising the Trump Administration as it selects candidates for federal positions in the state, and the Committee’s recommendations are an integral part of that process.

    “Mr. Joshua Dunlap was a top candidate recommended by my Federal Appointments Advisory Committee for this important position.  Mr. Dunlap currently serves as a Partner at Pierce Atwood LLP where he co-chairs the firm’s Appellate & Amici team. His wealth of appellate experience, along with his intelligence and temperament, make him an excellent choice to serve on the federal bench,” said Senator Collins. “A native of Vassalboro, now living in Scarborough, he will serve Maine well in this critical role. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate to swiftly confirm Mr. Dunlap.”

    A native of Vassalboro, Maine, Mr. Dunlap is currently a partner in the litigation group of Pierce Atwood LLP, where he co-chairs the firm’s Appellate & Amici team. He has practiced at Pierce Atwood for over fifteen years, handling substantial civil litigation matters in both appellate and trial courts. 

    His practice in federal and state courts has involved a wide range of common law, statutory, and constitutional claims. Mr. Dunlap currently serves as the chair for the Maine Appellate Rules Committee, to which he was appointed by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. 

    As an associate, Mr. Dunlap assisted multiple special masters, including the Honorable William J. Kayatta, Jr., and Ralph I. Lancaster, Jr., in overseeing original jurisdiction proceedings before the Supreme Court of the United States. 

    Prior to returning to Pierce Atwood, Mr. Dunlap clerked for the Honorable Paul J. Kelly, Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

    Mr. Dunlap graduated from the Notre Dame Law School, where he was the first in his class. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Padilla, Booker Unveil New Bill to Require Immigration Officers to Display Clear Identification

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.)

    Padilla, Booker Unveil New Bill to Require Immigration Officers to Display Clear Identification

    Padilla also leads 13 Democrats in letter to DHS requesting information about ICE’s use of unidentified plainclothes agents

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) introduced new legislation to require immigration enforcement officers to display clearly visible identification during public-facing enforcement actions. The Visible Identification Standards for Immigration-Based Law Enforcement (VISIBLE) Act of 2025 would strengthen oversight, transparency, and accountability for the Trump Administration’s indiscriminate and alarming immigration enforcement tactics that have terrorized communities across California and the nation.

    Under the Trump Administration’s mass deportation agenda, civil immigration enforcement operations have increasingly involved Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers engaging with the public while wearing unmarked tactical gear, concealing clothing, and face coverings that obscure both agency affiliation and personal identity. Without visible badges, names, or insignia, members of the public often have no way to confirm whether they are interacting with legitimate government officials.

    This lack of transparency endangers public safety by causing widespread confusion and fear, especially in communities already subject to heightened immigration scrutiny. It also increases operational and safety risks for law enforcement personnel by creating an opportunity for immigration enforcement impersonators and compounding uncertainty in high-stress situations. Clear, consistent, visible identification helps reduce miscommunication during enforcement encounters, strengthens officer credibility, and improves public cooperation, all of which are vital to mission success. The VISIBLE Act would place a critical check on the government’s power, ensuring basic transparency safeguards that protect public trust and legitimacy in immigration enforcement operations.

    “When federal immigration agents show up and pull someone off the street in plainclothes with their face obscured and no visible identification, it only escalates tensions and spreads fear while shielding federal agents from basic accountability,” said Senator Padilla. “Immigration agents should be required to display their agency and name or badge number — just like police and other local law enforcement agencies. The VISIBLE Act’s commonsense requirements will restore transparency and ensure impersonators can’t exploit the panic and confusion caused by unidentifiable federal immigration enforcement agents.”

    “For weeks, Americans have watched federal agents with no visible identification detain people off the streets and instill fear in communities across the country. Reports of individuals impersonating ICE officers have only increased the risk to public and officer safety. The lack of visible identification and uniform standards for immigration enforcement officers has created confusion, stoked fear, and undermined public trust in law enforcement,” said Senator Booker. “The VISIBLE Act is a necessary response grounded in law enforcement best practices that will prohibit immigration enforcement officers from wearing face coverings and require them to display their name or badge number and the agency they represent. We must act to maintain trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve, and this legislation is a necessary step toward a more transparent, accountable, and safe immigration enforcement system.”

    “This bill is an important step toward keeping immigration enforcement officers and all the people in America safe. Masked, plainclothes officers create an unreasonable risk of escalating violence and unnerve everyone who sees them,” said Scott Shuchart, Former ICE and DHS (Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties) Official. “As much as the cop in blues is a staple of American life, the masked bandit is a symbol of fear, and having government agents dressed like paramilitaries is un-American. Based on my experience in government, the VISIBLE Act makes good sense and would be straightforward for DHS officials to implement.”

    The ongoing immigration enforcement operations in Los Angeles County by unidentified federal agents have stoked fear and uncertainty throughout the region amid President Trump’s unprecedented escalation of militarized tactics. Recently at Dodger Stadium, plainclothes immigration agents parked outside of the stadium lot without identifying themselves. In Bell, masked agents wearing fatigues detained at least three people at a car wash, and in Pasadena, an agent exited an unmarked vehicle in the middle of the road and aimed his pistol at a group of pedestrians without identifying himself. From June 6 to June 22, immigration enforcement agents — many lacking identifying information — arrested 1,618 immigrants for deportation in Los Angeles County and surrounding areas.

    Specifically, the VISIBLE Act:

    • Requires immigration enforcement officers — including DHS personnel such as Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), federal agents detailed to immigration operations, and deputized state or local officers — to display clearly legible identification, including their agency name or initials and either their name or badge number, in a manner that remains visible and unobscured by tactical gear or clothing;
    • Prohibits non-medical face coverings (such as masks or balaclavas) that obscure identity or facial visibility, with exceptions for environmental hazards or covert operations; and
    • Requires DHS to establish disciplinary procedures for violations, report annually to Congress on compliance, and investigate complaints through its Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

    The bill does not apply to covert or non-public facing operations, nor does it prohibit face coverings when necessary for officer safety. It also does not apply to enforcement actions conducted solely under criminal authority.

    The VISIBLE Act is cosponsored by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

    The bill is endorsed by the ACLU and Public Counsel.

    A one-pager on the bill is available here.

    Full text of the bill is available here.

    Senator Padilla also led 13 Democratic Senators in a letter criticizing ICE for engaging in counterproductive, theatrical enforcement activities — including raids on courthouses and restaurants — and requesting information from the agency on its mask and uniform policies. The Senators argued that these tactics are designed to sow fear and chaos and that allowing masked, plainclothes officers to engage in public raids creates situations where bad actors can commit crimes while claiming to be ICE agents.

    In addition to Padilla, the letter was also signed by Senators Blumenthal, Booker, Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Hirono, Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Murray, Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Schiff, Smith, Van Hollen, Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Welch, and Wyden.

    Full text of the letter is available here.

    Senator Padilla has been outspoken in criticizing Trump’s mass deportations and unprecedented militarization and escalation of tensions by deploying National Guard troops and active-duty U.S. Marines to respond to overwhelmingly peaceful protests in Los Angeles. Padilla recently led the entire Senate Democratic Caucus in demanding that President Trump immediately withdraw all military forces from Los Angeles and cease all threats to deploy the National Guard or active-duty servicemembers to American cities. Padilla spoke on the Senate floor following his forcible removal from Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s press conference, where he was thrown to the ground and handcuffed after attempting to ask a question. He has spoken at a spotlight hearing and on the Senate floor multiple other times to blast President Trump for manufacturing a crisis by launching indiscriminate ICE raids across Los Angeles and using that crisis to dramatically expand executive power. Padilla is also leading legislation to restrict the President’s authority under the 217-year-old Insurrection Act and limit the domestic deployment of military troops for law enforcement purposes.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Helping New Yorkers Access Behavioral Health Treatment

    Source: US State of New York

    overnor Kathy Hochul today announced that new network adequacy regulations give New Yorkers with qualifying health insurance plans access to an initial outpatient appointment for behavioral health care within 10 business days of the request. These new consumer protections also require these plans to post up-to-date and accurate lists of in-network providers on their websites, which will help to eliminate inaccurate or misleading directories.

    “New Yorkers in need of mental health or substance use disorder treatment should not be forced to wait months for essential care or to cover these costs themselves when their plan doesn’t include any available providers,” Governor Hochul said. “These new regulations will help remove barriers that often force individuals and families to pay out-of-pocket for care or forgo treatment altogether.”

    As of July 1, New Yorkers covered by Medicaid Managed Care, Child Health Plus, and the Essential Plan are entitled to these important consumer protections for appointment wait times. For New Yorkers covered by commercial health insurance plans, these wait time standards will take effect on a rolling basis as their policies are renewed, modified, or purchased on and after July 1.

    The regulations also require plans to have dedicated employees who can help their members find an in-network provider. Additionally, the plans must provide a list of available in-network providers within three business days, following a member’s request.

    New Yorkers unsure of their coverage should contact their insurer or employer. Those needing mental health or substance use disorder services should also check their health insurance policies for a list of what is covered.

    Plans must post an accurate and up-to-date directory of their provider network, including health care professionals or facilities, the provider’s location, telehealth options, languages spoken, any restrictions concerning the conditions treated or ages served, and facility affiliations, among other information. Accurate directories will help to eliminate so-called ‘ghost networks’ –ones that give the appearance of offering in-network options, but instead list inaccurate information or providers that aren’t taking appointments.

    New York State Department of Financial Services Superintendent Adrienne Harris said, “This regulation is a significant step toward getting New Yorkers the critical care they need, when they need it. From banking, to insurance, to cryptocurrency, the Department will continue working to build a more equitable, transparent, and resilient financial system for all New Yorkers.”

    New York State Office of Mental Health Commissioner Dr. Ann Sullivan said, “These regulations remove barriers that either slowed or prevented New Yorkers from accessing critical behavioral health care services. Ensuring timely access and adequate networks of providers by plans and commercial insurers, we enable individuals and families to have access to high-quality mental health and substance use services whenever needed. These new regulations reflect Governor Hochul’s commitment to expanding access to behavioral health care statewide.”

    New York State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said, “Timely access to behavioral health care can be life-changing, and in many cases, lifesaving. These new regulations help ensure that all New Yorkers, regardless of their type of coverage, can access the mental health and substance use care they need, when they need it. I thank Governor Hochul for her unwavering commitment to protect the health of New Yorkers and advance health equity across the state.”

    New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports Commissioner Dr. Chinazo Cunningham said, “These new regulations will make it easier for people to quickly access the addiction and mental health care and resources they need. By continuing to remove barriers to these services, and strengthening consumer protections for those accessing help, we are continuing to support Governor Hochul’s vision to improve services across the state and help all New Yorkers live healthier lives.”

    State Senator Nathalia Fernandez said, “While the federal government pulls back from their responsibility to protect health care, New York is moving forward. These new regulations are about making sure coverage means real, timely care. I thank Governor Hochul for taking action to strengthen access to mental health and substance use care. That’s the kind of leadership this moment demands.”

    The new regulations also provide avenues for consumers to file a complaint against plans or insurers not in compliance. New Yorkers covered by Medicaid, Essential Plan, or Child Health Plus can contact DOH; those with state-regulated commercial insurance coverage may contact DFS. For more information about mental health and substance use disorder treatment coverage requirements and protections, visit here.

    The Community Health Access to Addiction & Mental Healthcare Project or ‘CHAMP’ is a resource available to help people with insurance issues related to substance use disorder and mental health care. CHAMP can answer questions, help file complaints against insurance companies, and assist with insurance denial appeals.

    Governor Hochul also secured $1 million in the FY 2026 Enacted State Budget to help enforce state regulations so that insurers provide the mental health care and substance use disorder coverage their members deserve. This includes new resources to strengthen compliance and oversight, educate consumers and providers, and investigate and mediate complaints.

    Under Governor Hochul’s leadership, New York is leading the nation in requiring health insurers to cover behavioral health services and continues to develop tools to ensure these companies are following all applicable laws. The state now requires commercial insurers to reimburse covered outpatient mental health and substance use disorder services provided by in-network OMH- and OASAS-licensed facilities at no less than the Medicaid rate; and requires commercial and Medicaid health plans to use transparent, nonprofit clinical guidelines and cover all medically necessary treatments.

    The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline connects New Yorkers to trained crisis counselors 24/7, who can help anyone thinking about suicide, struggling with substance use, experiencing a mental health crisis, or any other kind of emotional distress. New Yorkers can call, text or chat 988 if they are worried about someone who may need crisis support.

    New Yorkers struggling with an addiction, or whose loved ones are struggling, can find help and hope by calling the state’s toll-free, 24-hour, 7-day-a-week HOPEline at 1-877-8-HOPENY (1-877-846-7369) or by texting HOPENY (Short Code 467369).

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Congressman Ruiz introduces the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act to combat obesity epidemic, improve Americans’ health

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Raul Ruiz (36th District of California)

    Palm Desert, CA – Today, U.S. Representatives Dr. Raul Ruiz (D-CA), Mike Kelly (R-PA), Mariannette Miller-Meeks, M.D. (R-IA), and Gwen Moore (D-WI) introduced the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act (TROA), bipartisan legislation to combat the obesity crisis in the United States by providing regular screenings. 

    The bill would also prevent diseases associated with obesity through expanded coverage of new health care specialists and chronic weight management medications for Medicare recipients.

    “Obesity is a complex, chronic disease and a growing public health crisis that costs our nation billions each year,” said Congressman Dr. Raul Ruiz. “As an emergency physician, I’ve treated countless patients suffering from diabetes, heart disease, and other serious complications linked to obesity. The bipartisan Treat and Reduce Obesity Act would give seniors struggling with obesity access to Medicare coverage for proven medications and behavioral therapies, empowering them to live healthier, longer lives.”

    “The Treat and Reduce Obesity Act takes a critical step toward improving patient costs and patient outcomes,” said Rep. Kelly. “This bipartisan legislation would allow seniors struggling with obesity to take a responsible, proactive approach to improve their health and live longer, more active lives. I look forward to working with the Trump administration and the team at CMS, including my friend Dr. Mehmet Oz, to make America healthy again!”

    “As a physician and former director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, I have seen firsthand how obesity contributes to serious and preventable health conditions. The Treat and Reduce Obesity Act allows Medicare beneficiaries to access life-changing treatments, including behavioral therapy and FDA-approved medications. This bipartisan legislation improves health outcomes, lowers long-term costs, and helps Americans live longer and healthier lives,” said Dr. Miller-Meeks.

    “Obesity poses a growing health risk to millions of Americans, especially older adults. TROA would support critical medical interventions that can help those struggling with obesity, improving the overall health and wellbeing of Medicare beneficiaries,” said Rep. Moore.

    You can find the full bill text here.

    Senator Bill Cassidy leads companion legislation in the U.S. Senate.

    BACKGROUND

    According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, diseases associated with obesity such as heart disease, stroke, type II diabetes, and certain types of cancer are the leading causes of preventable death in the U.S. TROA would work to directly prevent these comorbidities.

    The scientific understanding of obesity has evolved, recognizing it as a complex, chronic, and relapsing disease. Obesity is a public health crisis in the United States. The total economic and societal impact of obesity rose to $1.4 trillion in the United States in 2018, up from $976 billion in 2014.

    A recent study found that Medicare beneficiaries with obesity and at least one other chronic illness could significantly reduce healthcare costs through weight management. Annual savings were estimated at up to 38% or nearly $10,000 in medical cost savings. Additionally, the USC Schaeffer Center found coverage of new obesity treatments could generate approximately $175 billion in cost offsets to Medicare in the first 10 years alone, increasing to $700 billion in 30 years. Coverage of medications to treat obesity will enhance human health and reduce federal healthcare costs by lowering the risks and prevalence of costly obesity-related chronic diseases.

    The following organizations have endorsed TROA this Congress: Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, American Academy of Pas, American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, American Diabetes Association, American Gastroenterological Association, American Medical Group Association, American Psychological Association, American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery, American Society for Nutrition, Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations, Association of Diabetes Care and Education Specialists, Black Woman’s Health Imperative, Boehringer-Ingelheim, ConscienHealth, Currax, Diabetes Leadership Council, Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition, Eli Lilly and Company, Endocrine Society, Gerontological Society of America, Global Liver Institute, Healthcare Leadership Council, HealthyWomen, Intuitive Surgical, MedTech Coalition for Metabolic Health, National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, National Consumers League, National Council on Aging, National Hispanic Medical Association, National Kidney Foundation, Novo Nordisk, Obesity Action Coalition, Obesity Medicine Association, Ro, Strategies to Overcome and Prevent (STOP) Obesity Alliance, The Obesity Society, Trust for America’s Health, WW Weight Watchers International, and YMCA of the USA.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Government responsiveness and democracy are important drivers of citizen engagement in Africa, new Afrobarometer flagship report reveals

    Source: APO

    Government responsiveness and democratic performance, along with unmet socioeconomic needs, are important drivers of citizen engagement in Africa, a new Afrobarometer flagship report (http://apo-opa.co/407Dbzv) reveals.

    Citizens are more likely to participate in political and civic activities if they are satisfied with the way their democracy works, believe that their elections are free and fair, and see their local elected officials as responsive to their needs. And contrary to theories and findings from the Global North, Africa’s least-wealthy citizens, and least-wealthy countries, report higher rates of engagement than their better-off counterparts.

    The report, the second in an annual series on high-priority topics, draws on data spanning the past decade, including the latest round of nationally representative surveys in 39 countries, representing the views of more than three-fourths of the continent’s population. The analysis focuses on key indicators of citizen engagement: voting, political party affiliation, political discussion, attending community meetings, joining with others to raise an issue, contacting leaders, and protesting.

    The findings, based on 53,444 face-to-face interviews, show that most Africans participate in multiple political and civic activities, with voting being the predominant form of engagement and protesting being the least common. But gaps exist, especially among youth and women. Poorer, less educated, and rural Africans tend to participate more in political and civic activities than their wealthier, more educated, and urban counterparts.

    The report also shows that across 30 countries surveyed consistently over the past decade, participation levels are declining for attending community meetings, raising issues, and identifying with a political party, but they are increasing for contacting leaders.

    The new flagship report is accompanied by country scorecards (http://apo-opa.co/4lIcBoD) on citizen engagement that provide an at-a-glance snapshot of the key indicators of citizen participation at the national level for each of the surveyed countries.

    Afrobarometer survey

    Afrobarometer is a pan-African, non-partisan survey research network that provides reliable data on African experiences and evaluations of democracy, governance, and quality of life. Nine survey rounds in up to 42 countries have been completed since 1999. Round 9 surveys (2021/2023) cover 39 countries.

    Afrobarometer’s national partners conduct face-to-face interviews in the language of the respondent’s choice. National samples of 1,200-2,400 yield country-level results with margins of error of +/-2 to +/-3 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.

    Key findings

    The scope of political and civic participation

    • Nearly three-quarters (72%) of Africans voted in their country’s last national election preceding the Afrobarometer Round 9 survey (Figure 1).
      • Four in 10 (41%) “feel close to” a political party.
      • More than six in 10 (62%) “occasionally” or “frequently” discuss politics with family or friends.
      • Almost half (47%) attended a community meeting at least once during the previous year, ranging from 11% in Tunisia to 85% in Madagascar.
      • More than four in 10 (42%) joined with others to raise an issue during the previous year.
      • More than one-third (37%) contacted a traditional leader, 28% a local government councillor, 15% a member of Parliament (MP), and 20% a political party official during the previous year.
      • About one in 10 respondents (9%) participated in a protest or demonstration during the previous year.

    Who participates?

    • The poorest citizens are more likely than the well-off to identify with a political party, attend a community meeting, join with others to raise an issue, and contact traditional leaders, local government councillors, and political party officials, and are about equally likely to vote, protest, discuss politics, and contact MPs (Figure 2).
    • Women continue to engage at substantially lower rates than men across all indicators included in the survey.
    • Youth (aged 18-35) are less engaged than older generations on all types of political and civic participation except protest; the disparity is largest for voting, where an 18-percentage-point gap separates youth from elders.
    • Compared to citizens with post-secondary education, those with no formal schooling are more likely to vote, to identify with a political party, to attend community meetings, and to contact traditional leaders, and are about equally likely to contact an MP, local government councillor, or political party official.

    Drivers of democratic attitudes

    • Rates of participation, particularly in attending community meetings and joining with others to raise an issue, are higher in countries with lower levels of economic well-being (Figure 3).
    • Countries where citizens perceive local government councillors as responsive to their needs generally have higher rates of contact with these officials. However, this pattern does not hold for national legislators, who are less accessible to ordinary citizens.
    • Electoral participation is higher in countries where citizens are satisfied with the way democracy works; believe that elections are free, fair, and effective; and feel free to cast their ballots as they wish. In contrast, when these conditions are not present, protests are more common (Figure 4).

    Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Afrobarometer.

    For more information, please contact:
    Josephine Appiah-Nyamekye Sanny
    Director of Communications
    Email: jappiah@afrobarometer.org
    Telephone: +233 243240933

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    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Senator Dr. Rasha Kelej congratulates the Winners of Merck Foundation Media Awards- 125 Winners from 36 Countries announced

    Source: APO

    • Merck Foundation CEO announced call for application of 2025 Merck Foundation Media Recognition Awards in partnership with African First Ladies – apply now at submit@merck-foundation.com

    Merck Foundation (www.Merck-Foundation.com), the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany, in partnership with the First Ladies of Africa, proudly announced the Winners of their Merck Foundation Africa Media Recognition Awards 2024 under the categories “More Than a Mother” and “Diabetes and Hypertension”.

    The Awards Ceremony was conducted virtually to honor and celebrate the outstanding contributions of all the winning media professionals. The winners were warmly acknowledged by Senator Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation and President of the “More Than a Mother” campaign.

    Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej expressed, “I am truly happy to announce the winners of our Media Awards, together with my dear sisters, The First Ladies of Africa, who are also the Ambassadors of the Merck Foundation ‘More Than a Mother’ Campaign. This year, we are delighted to celebrate 125 outstanding winners from 36 countries. It brings me joy to see such impressive participation not only from across Africa but also from several Asian and Latin American countries. Congratulations to all our incredible winners!

    It is a true pleasure to welcome you all as Merck Foundation Alumni. Let’s continue to work together to raise awareness about critical social and health challenges, be the voice of the voiceless, and create culture shift in our communities.”

    Merck Foundation Media Awards launched in 2017, are announced annually, with over 640 Winners from 52 countries celebrated to date.

    The theme of the “More Than a Mother” Media Awards is to raise awareness about important social issues like: Breaking Infertility Stigma, Supporting Girl Education, Women Empowerment, Ending Child Marriage, Ending Female Genital Mutilation and/or Stopping Gender-Based Violence. The theme of the “Diabetes and Hypertension” Media Awards is to Promote a Healthy Lifestyle and raise awareness about prevention and early detection of Diabetes and Hypertension.

    The Merck Foundation CEO also launched the Call for Applications for the 2025 Media Awards. “I am pleased to invite entries for the Merck Foundation Media Recognition Awards 2025 – “More Than a Mother” & “Diabetes and Hypertension”, in partnership with the African First Ladies. I look forward to receiving another outstanding round of impactful entries this year as well.” Said Senator Dr. Rasha Kelej.

    Winners of Merck Foundation “More Than a Mother” Media Recognition Awards 2024

    Here are the winners from West African Countries in partnership with The First Lady of the Republic of The Gambia, H.E. Mrs. FATOUMATTA BAH-BARROW; and The First Lady of the Republic of Sierra Leone, H.E. Dr. FATIMA MAADA BIO:

    PRINT CATEGORY WINNER

    • Jennifer Ambolley, The Chronicle, Ghana (First Position)
    • Mackie Muctarr Jalloh, News Times Daily, Sierra Leone (Second position)
    • Alao Abiodun, The Nation, Nigeria (Second position)

    ONLINE CATEGORY WINNERS

    • Dzifa Tetteh Tay, The Spectator, Ghana (First Position)
    • Laudia Sawer, Ghana News Agency, Ghana (First Position)
    • Nyima Sillah, The Voice, The Gambia (Second Position)
    • Isatou Ceesay, The Gambia Point, The Gambia (Third Position)
    • Abigail Arthur, Citi Newsroom, Ghana (Third Position)
    • Odimegwu Onwumere, The Nigerian Voice, Nigeria (Third Position)

    RADIO CATEGORY WINNER

    • Mavis Offei Acheampong, GBC Radio, Ghana (First Position)
    • Joyce Kantam Kolamong, GBC Radio, Ghana(Second Position)
    • Zainab Sunkary Koroma, Star Radio, Sierra Leone (Third Position)

    MULTIMEDIA CATEGORY WINNERS

    • Tolulope Adeleru-Balogun, News Central TV, Nigeria (First Position)
    • Alieu Ceesay, QTV, The Gambia (Second Position)
    • Mona Lisa Frimpong, Joy News, Ghana (Third Position)

    Here are the Winners from Southern African Countries in partnership with The First Lady of the Republic of Malawi, H.E. Mrs. MONICA CHAKWERA; The First Lady of the Republic of Zimbabwe, H.E. Amai Dr. AUXILLIA MNANGAGWA:

    PRINT CATEGORY WINNERS

    • Precious Kumbani, The Nation, Malawi (First Position)
    • Gresham Ngwira, Freelancer, Malawi (Second Position)
    • Simon Muntemba, Daily Nation, Zambia (Second Position)
    • Charlotte Nambadja, The Namibian, Namibia (Third Position)
    • Silence Mugadzaweta, The Standard, Zimbabwe (Third Position)

    ONLINE CATEGORY WINNERS

    • Alain Kabinda, Daily News Agency, Zambia (First Position)
    • Catherine Murombedzi, Freelancer, Zimbabwe (First Position)
    • Alick Ponje, The Times, Malawi (second Position)
    • Wallace Mawire, Pan African Visions, Zimbabwe (Second Position)
    • Hamu Madzedze, 365 Health Diaries, Zimbabwe (Third Position)
    • Kundai Michael Magoronga, Chronicle, Zimbabwe (Third Position)
    • Mlondi Mkhize, Briefly News, South Africa (Third Position)

    RADIO CATEGORY WINNERS

    • Glendah Fadzai Takachicha, Capitalk FM, Zimbabwe (First Position)
    • Tina Nyirenda, Smooth FM, Zambia (Second Position)
    • Sylviah Chisi, Trans World Radio, Malawi (Second Position)
    • Nyasha Mandimutsira, Capitalk FM, Zimbabwe (Third Position)
    • Perina N. Wahara, PL FM, Malawi (Third Position)

    MULTIMEDIA CATEGORY WINNERS

    • Keneilwe Pono, YTV, Botswana (First Position)
    • Taati Niilenge, The Namibian, Namibia (Second Position)
    • Lame Lucas, YTV, Botswana (Third Position)

    Here are the winners from East African Countries:

    PRINT CATEGORY WINNERS

    • Elizabeth Angira, People Daily, Kenya (First Position)
    • Marco Maduhu, Nipashe, Tanzania (Second Position)
    • Margaret Maina, Nation Media, Kenya (Second Position)
    • Beatrice Philemon Mukocho, The Guardian, Tanzania (Third Position)
    • Vitus Audax, The Guardian, Tanzania (Third Position)

    ONLINE CATEGORY WINNERS

    • Kamau Maichuhie, Nation Online, Kenya (First Position)
    • Isabella Maua Chemosit, Freelancer, Kenya (Second Position)
    • Anne Robi, Daily News, Tanzania (Second Position)
    • Nteza Michael, UG Standard, Uganda (Third Position)
    • Benjamin Takpiny, Anadolu Agency, South Sudan (Third Position)
    • Ayele Addis Ambelu, Ethiopian Mass Media Action News, Ethiopia (Third Position)

    RADIO CATEGORY WINNERS

    • Caren Waraba Sisya, Radio Citizen, Kenya (First Position)
    • Mamer Abraham Kuot, Voice of America, South Sudan, (Second Position)
    • Mwanaisha Makumbuli, Highlands FM, Tanzania (Second Position)
    • Fatuma Mustapha Mtemangani, Pambazuko FM, Tanzania (Third Position)
    • Daniel Byiringiro, Flash FM, Rwanda (Third Position)

    MULTIMEDIA CATEGORY WINNER

    • Rose Wangui, NTV Kenya, Kenya (First Position)
    • Andrew Juma, TV47, Kenya (Second Position)
    • Leonard Kigozi  and Isabel Nakirya, CGTN Africa, Uganda (Third Position)
    • Mackriner Siyovelwa, Crown Media, Tanzania (Third Position)

    Here are the winners from French Speaking African Countries in partnership with The First Lady of the Republic of Burundi, H.E. Madam ANGELINE NDAYISHIMIYE; The First Lady of Democratic Republic of the Congo, H.E. Madam DENISE NYAKERU TSHISEKEDI:

    PRINT CATEGORY WINNER

    • Issa Moussa, Niger Times, Niger (First Position)
    • Koami Agbetiafa, Niger Inter Press Group, Niger (Second Position)

    ONLINE CATEGORY WINNERS

    • AZODODASSI Mêmèdé Ambroisine, Savoir News, Togo (First Position)
    • Julio Gada, Global News, Benin (Second Position)
    • Boris Esono Nwenfor, Pan African Visions, Cameroon (Third Position)
    • Bakari Guèye, Initiatives News, Mauritania (Third Position)
    • Frimo Koukou Djipro, Lelus, Côte d’Ivoire (Third Position)

    RADIO CATEGORY WINNERS

    • Remy RUKUNDO, Radio TV Buntu, Burundi (First Position)
    • Magnus MFURANZIMA, ISÔKO FM, Burundi (First Position)
    • Mame Mbagnick DIOUF, Radio Oxyjeunes, Senegal (Second Position)
    • Tanko Worou, Radio SU TII DERA, Benin (Second Position)
    • Moussa KONE, Radio Channel 2, Mali (Third Position)

    MULTIMEDIA CATEGORY WINNERS

    • Matthias KABUYA TSHILUMBA, RTDK, DRC (First Position)

    Here are the winners from Portuguese Speaking African Countries in partnership with The First Lady of the Republic of Cabo Verde, H.E. Dr. DÉBORA KATISA CARVALHO:

    ONLINE CATEGORY WINNERS

    • Edisângela Tavares, Expresso das Ilhas, Cabo Verde (First Position)
    • Sheilla Ribeiro, Sociedade, Cabo Verde (Second Position)

    RADIO CATEGORY WINNERS

    • Teresa Monteiro Pinto, Rádio Televisão de Cabo Verde, Cabo Verde (First Position)

    MULTIMEDIA CATEGORY WINNERS

    • Ângelo Semedo, Deutsche Welle, Cabo Verde (First Position)

    Merck Foundation “Diabetes & Hypertension” Media Recognition Awards 2024

    Here are the winners from West African Countries in partnership with The First Lady of the Republic of The Gambia, H.E. Mrs. FATOUMATTA BAH-BARROW; and The First Lady of the Republic of Sierra Leone, H.E. Dr. FATIMA MAADA BIO:

    PRINT CATEGORY WINNER

    • Agnes Opoku Saprong, Ghanaian Times, Ghana (First Position)
    • Patience Ivie Ihejirika, Leadership Newspaper, Nigeria (Second Position)

    ONLINE CATEGORY WINNERS

    • Muhammed Lamin Touray, Freelancer, The Gambia (First Position)
    • Prince Owusu Asiedu, Adom Online, Ghana (Second Position)
    • Lara Adejoro, The Punch, Nigeria (Third Position)

    RADIO CATEGORY WINNERS

    • Godwin Awuni Anafo, Odadee Radio, Ghana (First Position)

    MULTIMEDIA CATEGORY WINNER

    • Emmanuel Dzivenu Seyram Abla De-Souza, Joy TV, Ghana (First Position)
    • Ezedimbu Karen Ogomegbunem, Africa Independent Television, Nigeria, (Second Position)
    • Lois Abba Sambo, Abuja Broadcasting Corporation, Nigeria (Third Position)
    • Akua Oforiwa Darko, TV3, Ghana (Third Position)

    Here are the Winners from Southern African Countries in partnership with The First Lady of the Republic of Malawi, H.E. Mrs. MONICA CHAKWERA; The First Lady of the Republic of Zambia, H.E. Mrs. MUTINTA HICHILEMA; The First Lady of the Republic of Zimbabwe, H.E. Amai Dr. AUXILLIA MNANGAGWA:

    PRINT CATEGORY WINNER

    • Nancy Kefilwe Ramokhua, The Patriot, Botswana (First Position)
    • Matilda Chimwaza Majawa, Times Group, Malawi (Second Position)

    ONLINE CATEGORY WINNERS

    • June Shimuoshili, Unwrap Online, Namibia (First Position)
    • Tendai Chisiri, Sport Way News Net, Zimbabwe (Second Position)
    • Shireen van Wyk, Shay Blogger, Namibia (Third Position)
    • Prince Kurupati, Pan African Visions, Zimbabwe (Third Position)

    RADIO CATEGORY WINNERS

    • Elvis Howahowa, Times Radio, Malawi (First Position)
    • Stella Mlotha, Trans World Radio, Malawi (Second Position)

    Here are the winners from East African Countries:

    PRINT CATEGORY WINNER

    • Lucy Johnbosco, Mwananchi, Tanzania (First Position)
    • Christina Mwakangale, Nipashe, Tanzania (Second Position)

    ONLINE CATEGORY WINNERS

    • Joan Mbabazi, The New Times, Rwanda (First Position)
    • Leon Lidigu, Nation Online, Kenya (Second Position)
    • Namwalo Daniel Absalom, Kenya News Agency, Kenya (Third Position)
    • Angela Kezengwa, Citizen Digital, Kenya (Third Position)
    • Veronica Mrema, M24 Tanzania, Tanzania (Third Position)

    RADIO CATEGORY WINNERS

    • Kintu Khalid, Radio Simba, Uganda (First Position)
    • Asha Bekidusa, Bahari FM, Kenya (Second Position)

    MULTIMEDIA CATEGORY WINNER

    • Walter Mwesigye, NTV, Uganda (First Position)
    • Edvesta Tarimo, Tumaini Media, Tanzania (Second Position)

    Here are the winners from French Speaking African Countries in partnership with The First Lady of the Republic of Burundi, H.E. Madam ANGELINE NDAYISHIMIYE; and The First Lady of Democratic Republic of the Congo, H.E. Madam DENISE NYAKERU TSHISEKEDI:

    PRINT CATEGORY WINNERS

    • Konan N’Guessan Attoumgbre Joseph, La Retraite Active, Côte d’Ivoire (First Position)
    • Nkurunziza Moise, Le Renouveau, Burundi (Second Position)

    ONLINE CATEGORY WINNERS

    • Bahwa Ferdinand, Le Journal Africa, Burundi (First Position)
    • Abdoulaye Ouédraogo, Queen Mafa, Burkina Faso (Second Position)
    • Richard Manirakiza, l’Agence Burundaise de Presse, Burundi (Second Position)
    • Mapote Gaye, Infomedia27, Senegal (Second Position)
    • Atha Menssan Woffa Assan, Focus Infos, Togo (Third Position)
    • Catherine Aimée Biloa, Échos Santé, Cameroon (Third Position)
    • Nadège Omoladé SANNY, SRTB Online, Benin (Third Position)

    RADIO CATEGORY WINNERS

    • MVUYEKURE Jean Claude, Radio TV Buntu, Burundi (First Position)
    • Abdoul Razak Sani Oumarou, Radio Saraounia Maradi, Niger (Second Position)
    • Kabamba Ngalamulume Fabrice, Radio Télévision de l’éducation (RTEDUC), DRC (Third Position)

    MULTIMEDIA CATEGORY WINNER

    • Chris IRAMBONA, Radio Television Buntu, Burundi (First Position)

    Here are the winners from ASIAN Countries:

    PRINT CATEGORY WINNER

    • Parikshit Nirbhay, Amar Ujala, India (First Position)
    • Revathi Murugappan, Star Health, Malaysia (Second Position)
    • Pooja Biraia, The Week, India (Third Position)

    ONLINE CATEGORY WINNERS

    • Rashe Zoe Sophia B Piquero, Cebu Daily News, Philippines (First Position)
    • Roshan Bhandari, Medicoliterature, Nepal (Second Position)
    • Crystal Chow, Undark Magazine, China (Third Position)

    Here are the winners from LATIN AMERICA Countries:

    ONLINE CATEGORY WINNERS

    • Adriana Becerra, Agencia Brunch, Mexico (First Position)
    • Rafaela Polo, UOL, Brazil (Second Position)

    MULTIMEDIA CATEGORY WINNER

    • Roxana Fabiola Lopresti, Channel 9 Televida, Argentina (First Position)
    • Ana Paula Pedrosa, R7, Brazil (Second Position)

    Details of Merck Foundation Media Awards 2025:

    1. Merck Foundation Africa Media Recognition “More Than a Mother” Awards 2025

    Theme for the awards: Breaking Infertility Stigma, Supporting Girl Education, Women Empowerment, Ending Child Marriage, Ending FGM, and/or Stopping GBV at all levels.

    Who can apply: Journalists from Print, Radio, Online, and Multimedia platforms from the following groups:

    1. Southern African Countries
    2. West African Countries
    3. East African Countries
    4. French Speaking African Countries
    5. Portuguese Speaking African Countries

    Submission deadline: 30th September 2025.

    2. Merck Foundation Media Recognition “Diabetes & Hypertension” Awards 2025

    Theme for the awards: Promoting a healthy lifestyle and raising awareness about prevention and early detection of Diabetes and Hypertension.

    Who can apply: Journalists from Print, Radio, Online, and Multimedia platforms from the following groups:

    1. Southern African Countries
    2. West African Countries
    3. East African Countries
    4. French Speaking African Countries
    5. Portuguese Speaking African Countries
    6. Latin American Countries
    7. Asian Countries

    Submission deadline: 30th October 2025.

    All entries are to be submitted to submit@merck-foundation.com.

    Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Merck Foundation.

    Contact:
    Mehak Handa
    Community Awareness Program Manager 
    Phone: +91 9310087613/ +91 9319606669
    Email: mehak.handa@external.merckgroup.com

    Join the conversation on our social media platforms below and let your voice be heard:
    Facebook: https://apo-opa.co/4lh6O9Q
    X: https://apo-opa.co/4nUxlf9
    YouTube: https://apo-opa.co/460DFew
    Instagram: https://apo-opa.co/3Ge6Ikj
    Threads: https://apo-opa.co/3U0B8JS
    Flickr: https://apo-opa.co/40uz8xp
    Website: www.Merck-Foundation.com
    Download Merck Foundation App: https://apo-opa.co/3U1RIZQ

    About Merck Foundation:
    The Merck Foundation, established in 2017, is the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany, aims to improve the health and wellbeing of people and advance their lives through science and technology. Our efforts are primarily focused on improving access to quality & equitable healthcare solutions in underserved communities, building healthcare & scientific research capacity, empowering girls in education and empowering people in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) with a special focus on women and youth. All Merck Foundation press releases are distributed by e-mail at the same time they become available on the Merck Foundation Website. Please visit www.Merck-Foundation.com to read more. Follow the social media of Merck Foundation: Facebook (https://apo-opa.co/4lh6O9Q), X (https://apo-opa.co/4nUxlf9), Instagram (https://apo-opa.co/3Ge6Ikj), YouTube (https://apo-opa.co/460DFew), Threads (https://apo-opa.co/3U0B8JS) and Flickr (https://apo-opa.co/40uz8xp).

    The Merck Foundation is dedicated to improving social and health outcomes for communities in need. While it collaborates with various partners, including governments to achieve its humanitarian goals, the foundation remains strictly neutral in political matters. It does not engage in or support any political activities, elections, or regimes, focusing solely on its mission to elevate humanity and enhance well-being while maintaining a strict non-political stance in all of its endeavors.

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    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Senator Dr. Rasha Kelej, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Merck Foundation, Featured by Vogue India on transforming creativity into a force for social change

    Source: APO

    Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation (www.Merck-Foundation.com), has been featured by a leading lifestyle media organization, Vogue India (https://apo-opa.co/3Tw023X). The article, titled “Leading with Courage and Conviction: Senator Dr. Rasha Kelej on empowering women, advancing healthcare, and transforming media in Africa,” highlights the unique approach she adapted by engaging the art, fashion, and media communities to address critical social issues such as Infertility Stigma, Supporting Girl Education, Ending Gender-Based Violence (GBV) & Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), Child marriage and also health issues like Diabetes & Hypertension Awareness. 

    On being featured by Vogue India, Dr Kelej shared, “I have been a long-time Vogue reader, and I am truly delighted to be featured by Vogue India for my creative approach to driving social change. Africa is a continent full of vibrant culture, colour, and creativity, and I’ve always believed that fashion, art, and media can be powerful instruments to inspire positive change—beyond just entertainment. 

    This belief led me to develop innovative initiatives such as Our Africa TV program, Songs, Children’s storybooks, Animation Films, and Awards for the best Media, Song, Film and Fashion Designs. These initiatives are aimed at raising awareness about critical and sensitive social and health issues, in a relatable and impactful way. 

    I’m proud that this work is being recognized and shared as a meaningful case study with Vogue readers around the world.” 

    Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej has been recognized as One of 100 Most Influential Africans for six consecutive years from 2019 till 2024. Under her leadership, Merck Foundation has been recognized as the NGO of the Year in 2022 & 2024, the Most Influential NGO Shaping Africa’s Future and also received the ‘Best Health Sector Philanthropy’ Award 2023.  

    The Vogue article also highlights Dr. Rasha Kelej’s efforts to establish impactful partnership between Merck Foundation and over 28 African First Ladies, showcasing their collective efforts to transform healthcare across Africa and beyond. Merck Foundation has provided over 2,250 scholarships for young doctors from 52 countries in more than 44 critical and underserved medical specialties. The feature also sheds light on the Educating Linda program, which is supporting the education through providing 800 scholarships for high performance and underprivileged African schoolgirls, empowering them to complete their studies and reach their full potential. 

    Click here to read the full Vogue India article, which offers deeper insights into Dr. Rasha Kelej’s impactful initiatives and the far-reaching work of Merck Foundation across Africa and beyond: https://apo-opa.co/3Tw023X

    Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Merck Foundation.

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    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Security: U.S. Marshals New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force Completes Operation ‘Apex Hammer’ with 264 Arrests

    Source: US Marshals Service

    Newark, NJ – The U.S. Marshals Service New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force, in coordination with federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, has concluded Operation Apex Hammer, a high-impact fugitive apprehension initiative resulting in the arrest of 264 violent offenders, including murder suspects, sex offenders, and known gang members.

    Launched in early June 2025, Operation Apex Hammer targeted the nation’s most dangerous fugitives and individuals wanted for crimes including homicide, armed robbery, assault, weapons trafficking, and sexual offenses involving children. The month-long operation spanned throughout the state of New Jersey focusing on areas with high rates of violent crime and outstanding felony warrants with most arrests taking place in Camden and Newark.

    “Operation Apex Hammer sent a clear message,” said U.S. Marshal for the District of New Jersey Juan Mattos Jr. “The U.S. Marshals and our partner agencies will never stop pursuing those who threaten the safety of our communities. This operation reflects our unwavering commitment to protect communities by targeting and removing the most dangerous individuals from our streets.”

    Among the notable arrests:

    • Lorenzo Benitez, 54, an illegal alien from Guatemala, wanted out of Keansburg for multiple counts of sexual assault, arrested June 4 in Plainfield.
    • Darlin Franco-Guzman, 25, an illegal alien from Honduras, wanted out of Baltimore County for burglary and attempted sexual assault of a 12-year-old female, arrested June 10 in Trenton.
    • Stephen Bullock, 32, wanted for the kidnapping and sexual assault of a 76-year-old woman in Camden County, arrested June 13 in Hi-Nella.
    • Shawn Davis, 38, wanted for a 2024 homicide in Trenton, arrested June 13 in Brooklyn, New York.
    • Luis Duval-Jimenez, 31, wanted for attempted murder after he ran over a South Brunswick police officer with his vehicle in May 2025, arrested June 18 in North Arlington.
    • Trasuf Bennett, 20, and a juvenile accomplice, wanted for the drive-by shooting murder of a 20-year-old male victim in Milleville, arrested June 19 in Trenton.
    • Francisco Ruiz, 67, wanted for sexual assault by contact, terroristic threats, endangering the welfare of a child, and criminal restraint, arrested June 20 in Bayonne.

    In addition to the arrests of 17 homicide suspects and 95 gang members, a total of 14 illegal firearms were seized. Of the 264 arrested, 31 were captured out-of-state and 2 overseas. Emphasizing the seriousness of the criminality of these 264 fugitives, they combined for an astounding total of 2,625 prior arrests.

    “This was a unified effort,” said Mattos. “Our task force, federal agencies, local, and state partners worked side-by-side to ensure this mission’s success. The results speak for themselves.”

    “I have seen firsthand the unwavering dedication of our law enforcement partners, and I proudly stand with them in this fight,” said Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, Alina Habba. “Operation Apex Hammer is proof of what we can accomplish when we come together to drive violent crime out of our communities. I especially commend the U.S. Marshals Service for their relentless pursuit of dangerous fugitives and their commitment to bringing those who terrorize our neighborhoods to justice.” 

    Operation Apex Hammer was focused on identifying and apprehending high-threat fugitives using intelligence-led policing, community engagement, and interagency collaboration. The U.S. Marshals Service remains committed to pursuing justice and ensuring that the nation’s most dangerous fugitives are brought to justice.

    The U.S. Marshals Service New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force is comprised of individuals from the following agencies:

    New Jersey State Police, New Jersey State Parole, New Jersey Department of Corrections, Port Authority Police Department, Passaic County Sheriff, Essex County Sheriff, Union County Sheriff, Mercer County Sheriff, Monmouth County Sheriff, Ocean County Sheriff, Burlington County Sheriff, Camden County Sheriff, Hudson County Sheriff, Gloucester County Sheriff, Salem County Sheriff, Atlantic County Sheriff, Somerset County Sheriff, Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, Salem County Prosecutor’s Office, Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office, Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office, Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office, Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, Morris County Prosecutor’s Office, Newark PD, Jersey City PD, Trenton PD, Camden Metro PD, Atlantic City PD, Asbury Park PD, Vineland PD, Pennsauken PD, Flemington PD, Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Removal Operations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection,  and U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Unsealed Indictment Charges Three Men with Stealing Dozens of High-End and Luxury Vehicles Worth Over $5 Million

    Source: US FBI

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Three Charlotte men are facing federal charges for conspiring to steal and transport across state lines dozens of luxury and high-end vehicles worth well over $5 million, announced Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. A criminal indictment was filed in June and unsealed today in federal court.

    Jason Byrnes, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Secret Service, Charlotte Field Office, and Chief Johnny Jennings of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) join U.S. Attorney Ferguson in making today’s announcement.

    Aquanzae Jamal Switzer, 24, Da’Quante Antwone Banks, 24, and Trajan Dakiel Mack, 26, all of Charlotte, are charged with conspiracy to transport, possess, and sell stolen vehicles in interstate commerce, possession of a stolen vehicle, and interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle.

    “This multi-state automobile theft ring was organized and sophisticated,” said U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson. “Organized crime has no place in the Western District of North Carolina, and I am grateful to our law enforcement partners for disrupting this operation.”

    The indictment alleges that, between 2022 and April 2024, the defendants engaged in a conspiracy to steal dozens of high-end motor vehicles worth millions of dollars from individuals, car dealerships, and other businesses located in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, and Tennessee. To maximize their profits, Switzer, Banks, and Mack allegedly targeted luxury models by BMW, Land Rover, and Mercedez-Benz, as well trucks, sports utility vehicles, and high-end horsepower models manufactured by Chevrolet, Ford and Jeep.

    The defendants allegedly stole multiple vehicles at once, generally at night, using key fob programmers, and conspired with other individuals who served as drivers of the stolen vehicles. For example, the indictment alleges that the defendants, aided and abetted by others, stole 12 vehicles from a car dealership located in Lillington, North Carolina. To avoid detection, the co-conspirators used temporary and fictitious vehicles tags on the stolen vehicles, removed the GPS navigation and tracking systems from the vehicles, and changed the appearance of the stolen vehicles soon after the thefts.

    According to allegations in the indictment, the co-defendants and their co-conspirators often sold the stolen vehicles at prices significantly below their retail value and kept some of the vehicles for personal use and to further facilitate the scheme.

    The conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. The charges of possession of a stolen vehicle and interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle each carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. If convicted, a federal district court judge will determine any sentence imposed after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

    This is the sixth indictment filed in the U.S. District Court in Charlotte for federal offenses involving the interstate theft of vehicles since 2023. Previously, federal charges were filed against three Charlotte men for conspiring to steal luxury vehicles and transporting them across state lines. A Charlotte man was indicted for stealing high-end vehicles, including several vehicles from the Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Two individuals were charged for a scheme that involved buying and selling stolen vehicles from across the country. Five individuals were indicted for stealing luxury vehicles from dealerships throughout the United States, and two additional individuals were indicted for orchestrating high-end auto thefts from businesses in South Carolina.

    The charges against the defendants are allegations and they are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

    U.S. Attorney Ferguson commended the Secret Service and CMPD for their investigation of this case and thanked the FBI and the National Insurance Crime Bureau and Homeland Security Investigations for their assistance with the prior prosecutions. 

    Assistant U.S. Attorneys William Bozin and Daniel Ryan of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte are prosecuting the cases.

     

     

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI: Renasant Announces 2025 Second Quarter Webcast and Conference Call Information

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    TUPELO, Miss., July 08, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Renasant Corporation (NYSE: RNST) (the “Company”) will announce 2025 second quarter results following the NYSE’s closing on Tuesday, July 22, 2025. The Company will hold executive management’s quarterly webcast and conference call with analysts on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, at 10:00 AM Eastern Time (9:00 AM Central Time).

    The webcast is accessible through Renasant’s investor relations website at www.renasant.com or https://event.choruscall.com/mediaframe/webcast.html?webcastid=gtM01rRl. To access the conference via telephone, dial 1-877-513-1143 in the United States and request the Renasant Corporation 2025 Second Quarter Earnings Webcast and Conference Call. International participants should dial 1-412-902-4145 to access the conference call.

    The webcast will be archived on www.renasant.com and will remain accessible for one year. A replay can be accessed via telephone by dialing 1-877-344-7529 in the United States and entering conference number 6698526 or by dialing 1-412-317-0088 internationally and entering the same conference number. Telephone replay access is available until August 6, 2025.

    ABOUT RENASANT CORPORATION:

    Renasant Corporation is the parent of Renasant Bank, a 121-year-old financial services institution. Renasant has assets of approximately $26.0 billion and operates more than 280 banking, lending, mortgage, and wealth management offices throughout the Southeast as well as factoring and asset-based lending on a nationwide basis.

    NOTE TO INVESTORS:

    This news release may contain, or incorporate by reference, statements which may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such forward-looking statements usually include words such as “expects,” “projects,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “intends,” “estimates,” “strategy,” “plan,” “potential,” “possible” and other similar expressions.

    Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees for future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Important factors currently known to management that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include significant fluctuations in interest rates, inflation, economic recession, significant changes in the federal and state legal and regulatory environment, significant underperformance in our portfolio of outstanding loans, and competition in our markets. Management believes that the assumptions underlying the Company’s forward-looking statements are reasonable, but any of the assumptions could prove to be inaccurate. Investors are urged to carefully consider the risks described in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) from time to time, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, which are available at www.renasant.com and the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes to future operating results over time.

    Contacts For Media: For Financials:
      John S. Oxford James C. Mabry IV
      Senior Vice President Executive Vice President
      Chief Marketing Officer Chief Financial Officer
      (662) 680-1219 (662) 680-1281
      joxford@renasant.com jim.mabry@renasant.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: The Edwardians: Age of Elegance – a glimpse into royal patronage of the arts in the early 20th century

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jane Hamlett, Professor of Modern British History, Royal Holloway University of London

    King Edward VII, the son of Queen Victoria, ascended the throne upon her death in 1901, but unlike his mother, he ruled for a very short period and died in 1910. His reign, along with the years immediately before the outbreak of the first world war in 1914, are known as the Edwardian period.

    Taking in this particular era, The Edwardians: Age of Elegance at the King’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace, focuses on the artistic patronage of Edward VII and his wife Alexandra of Denmark, and their son George V and his wife Mary of Teck.

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    Edward and Alexandra were married in 1863, and as Prince and Princess of Wales the pair were leading tastemakers in Victorian upper-class society in the years before Edward came to the throne at the beginning of the 20th century.

    This is often regarded as a golden age before the carnage and disruption of the great war saw the world indelibly change. However, the exhibition is not confined to these years and also reaches back into the Victorian period (1837-1901).

    Those hoping to experience some of the glamour of the royal family won’t be disappointed. The first room takes visitors into the heady atmosphere of the Marlborough House set which centred around Edward and Alexandra’s residence in St James’s. One case commemorates the 1871 Waverley Ball which marked the centenary of popular Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott. Alexandra’s elaborate Mary Queen of Scots costume – a silk dress with gold lacings – is on display.

    The pageantry of the court is communicated through a series of stunning narrative paintings including the Danish artist Laurits Tuxen’s The Garden Party at Buckingham Palace (1897-1900) and The Family of Queen Victoria in 1887 (1887) painted for her golden jubilee in 1887.

    This theme is picked up in the second large room, which focuses on the lavish world of the court. Here, the opulent 1911 coronation robes of George and Mary and a case of necklaces and jewellery take centre stage. This exhibit is the star of the show with plenty of visitors posing for photographs in front of it.

    Royals as art collectors

    But beneath all the glitz and glamour there’s a subtler story about how the royal family worked as collectors and their wider role in Britain and beyond. One of the most interesting things about the exhibition is that it reveals the personal taste of the royals, through what they chose to collect.

    Horses, dogs and yachts are prominent. Edward’s dog Caesar, the wire-haired fox terrier who famously followed his funeral procession in 1910, appears in several images, and his race horse Persimmon is also represented.

    Edward and Alexandra were patrons of leading artists of the day – he owned a number of works by the popular Victorian painter Frederic Leighton, while she collected art by the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne Jones. Alexandra also supported Minton’s pottery studio in the 1870s, which employed many women artists.

    The exhibition also reveals Alexandra’s personal artistic activities. Like many upper-class Victorian women, she was a keen photographer and creator of photo albums. In the second half of the 19th century, album-making offered women an outlet for creativity and emotional expression. An album of designs made by Alexandra in the 1860s features photos arranged in a spiders web, with family and friends transformed into butterflies and insects.

    Royal patronage was often about international connections. Alexandra’s Danish heritage is expressed through pieces from the Royal Copenhagen porcelain manufacturing company, including a massive porcelain cabinet, featuring an ornamental roof topped by a group of dancing monkeys surrounding a large swan.

    A larger room is devoted to objects amassed on visits and through diplomatic exchange with the colonies which at the time included India, part of Africa, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Increasingly speedy travel networks brought the world closer in the late 19th century and the royal family were able to travel further and more frequently than ever before. These visits played an important role in Britain’s imperial identity, and underlined the nation’s global power.

    Between 1875 and 1876 Edward toured India. This trip produced a dazzling array of diplomatic gifts, such as a case filled with ornately decorated Indian weapons. After the visit Edward created a special Indian room for them at Marlborough House. Today, they sparkle in their cabinet for the exhibition’s visitors.

    The exhibition does a good job of revealing the importance of imperial connections to the royal collections and the role of the royals in the larger colonial project, but in places I would have liked to know more about the stories behind these objects.

    There’s a tension between the precise attribution of the work of British and European artists and the objects that have been gifted from the colonies – almost all labelled “unidentified maker”.

    The absence of such information is the product of longstanding curatorial habits that shaped these collections in the past and continue to determine what we know about them today. This does mean that there are some absences about the origins and makers of these things, which could have been acknowledged more in some of the exhibition text.

    This was particularly evident when looking at a large portrait of the Maori dancer Terewai Horomona by Gottfried Lindauer. The image has an elaborate frame with a plaque declaring it was presented to the Prince of Wales by the New Zealand commissioner for the Colonial and India Exhibition, 1886.

    The commentary states that Edward was “enchanted” with the portrait which was “promptly gifted” to him. But this might have been better used as an opportunity to give some thought to the woman whose image was framed, presented and exchanged.

    Overall, though, this is an enjoyable exhibition that reveals the royal social world, patronage and imperial connections, and tells a fascinating story about the artistic taste and activities of the lesser-known monarchs of the early 20th century.

    Jane Hamlett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. The Edwardians: Age of Elegance – a glimpse into royal patronage of the arts in the early 20th century – https://theconversation.com/the-edwardians-age-of-elegance-a-glimpse-into-royal-patronage-of-the-arts-in-the-early-20th-century-259909

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Golden eagles were reintroduced to Ireland, but without prey they’re now struggling to thrive

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Fiona McAuliffe, Lecturer of Ecology, Scotland’s Rural College

    Dennis Jacobsen/Shutterstock

    In the early 2000s, golden eagles soared once again over the hills of Donegal in northwest Ireland, for the first time in nearly a century. Their return was celebrated as a landmark in Irish conservation, a hopeful sign that one of the island’s most iconic predators was back.

    But two decades on, the reality is sobering. The population remains small with just five territorial pairs and an estimated total population of just 20-25 birds. Breeding success is poor, and the golden eagle’s future in Ireland is uncertain. So what went wrong?

    Our research published in the Irish Naturalists’ Journal suggests the problem isn’t with the eagles themselves – it’s with the landscape they were released into. On paper, Donegal’s uplands looked ideal: open terrain, low human disturbance and ample wild prey. But over time, key parts of that ecosystem have quietly unravelled.

    Golden eagles rely on a steady supply of prey to thrive and raise chicks – notably red grouse and Irish hares. Yet, during our recent surveys along transects (predetermined lines through an area) and footage from camera traps in and around Glenveagh national park, the uplands seemed eerily quiet. Not just quiet of eagles, but of the smaller animals they prey on for food. The landscape looked wild, but had lost some of its vital living components.

    When comparing the available prey biomass, that’s the combined weight of grouse and hares per unit area, Donegal had 74-83% less prey than equivalent areas in the Scottish Highlands where golden eagles are thriving. That’s an enormous shortfall. Without enough food, adult eagles must travel further to hunt and spend more energy – and so are less likely to raise chicks successfully. A few lean years can tip a small population like this into crisis.

    Why is prey so scarce? One of the main culprits is overgrazing. Red deer numbers have exploded across Ireland in recent decades. In places such as Donegal, their constant browsing and grazing has severely degraded upland habitats. This damages the heather moorlands that grouse and hares depend on, leaving them with less cover and fewer food sources.

    Red deer were the most common species recorded during camera trap surveys.
    Queen’s University Belfast

    Add to this the growing pressure from medium-sized predators, including foxes and badgers. Without apex predators such as wolves or lynx to keep them in check, these “mesopredators” flourish. This well-documented phenomenon is known as mesopredator release where populations of mid-sized predators increase after the loss of top predators, often leading to greater pressure on prey species, such as ground-nesting birds and young hares, compounding the challenges for these struggling prey species.

    And while Ireland’s conservation laws look strong on paper, implementation often lags behind. Some protected areas remain heavily grazed, burned or unmanaged. Management plans are either missing, unenforced or outdated. This weakens the very protections meant to sustain wildlife.

    A lesson for rewilding

    The reintroduction of golden eagles was based on the best available knowledge at the time. But ecosystems aren’t static. What may have been viable habitat in the 1990s no longer meets the needs of a breeding eagle population today.

    Reintroducing a species isn’t enough. The systems that sustain it also need to be restored. The clichéd paradigm that nature-is-good and humans-are-bad isn’t helpful. Instead modern landscapes are often so degraded that they can’t recover if left alone.

    Upland areas within Glenveagh national park are overgrazed, leading to exposed peat and erosion.
    Fiona McAuliffe

    Conservation can facilitate active recovery. Real rewilding is about more than simply “putting animals back” and “letting nature take its course”. It is about putting systems back: predators, prey, plants and the processes that connect them.

    Despite the challenges, the golden eagle population has not failed in Ireland – not yet at least. To turn the tide, conservation efforts must go beyond charismatic species and focus on landscape restoration. That means reducing overgrazing, supporting prey recovery, rebalancing predator dynamics and making sure protected areas are actually protected.

    Encouragingly, Glenveagh national park has begun some of this work, by reducing deer overgrazing and regenerating native woodlands. If this landscape restoration is sustained and expanded, golden eagles could still thrive in a more balanced, functioning upland ecosystem.

    These birds are more than just a symbol of wildness. They are a litmus test of ecosystem health. Right now, they’re telling us something important. Something those calling for the reintroduction of other top predators, including wolves, would do well to consider.

    Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?

    Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 45,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Golden eagles were reintroduced to Ireland, but without prey they’re now struggling to thrive – https://theconversation.com/golden-eagles-were-reintroduced-to-ireland-but-without-prey-theyre-now-struggling-to-thrive-258832

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: The Shrouds: new Cronenberg film is an elusive meditation on death, grief and environmental ethics

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Laura O’Flanagan, PhD Candidate, School of English, Dublin City University

    American filmmaker David Cronenberg is a leading figure in body horror, a film genre that explores disturbing and often grotesque aspects of the human body. Films such as The Fly (1986), eXistenZ (1999) and Crimes of the Future (2022) depict scenes of physical mutilation, illness and technological invasion to represent deeper fears about identity, society and the human condition.

    Through intense bodily imagery, Cronenberg’s films raise powerful questions about human relationships with technology and nature. As our relationship with technology rapidly evolves alongside escalating environmental catastrophe, there is a timely significance in these ideas.

    His latest film, The Shrouds, evokes the writing of Stacy Alaimo, a scholar known for her work exploring the connections between the human body, the environment, and the social forces that shape both. Alaimo’s work combines feminist and materialist ideas and examines how our bodies are physically connected to the world around us – not separate from nature or society, but shaped by both ecological systems and social structures.

    Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

    Like Cronenberg, Alaimo is interested in the entanglement of human flesh with more-than-human worlds, alongside the interplay between bodies and objects.

    In The Shrouds, the body, specifically that of Becca (Diane Kruger) is placed firmly at the centre of the story. Appearing both as a decaying corpse and naked in dream sequences, her body bears fresh surgical scars which are unbandaged and exposed.

    Becca’s body is shown as intensely vulnerable, a gendered depiction of femaleness which is controlled literally by the male gaze through the “shroud”, a piece of sci-fi wearable tech. It comprises a suit of MRI and X-ray cameras which encases a corpse, allowing decomposition to be monitored through a live video link with an app.

    This conceit embeds Becca both in the Earth and in technology, creating deeply memorable imagery which challenges viewers to think about death, grief and the environmental ethics surrounding human burial.

    The presentation of Becca’s body evokes Alaimo’s concept of transcorporeality. In her 2010 book Bodily Natures, Alaimo describes transcorporeality as the idea that “the human is ultimately inseparable from ‘the environment’” – continually transformed through interactions with the landscape, chemicals, technology and non-human forces. Becca’s corpse, decaying in real-time on a live link, highlights this connection.

    Grief: the fictional and the personal

    The film opens with Karsh (Vincent Kassel), Becca’s bereaved husband, in a dentist’s chair being told, “Grief is rotting your teeth”. The film as a whole can be read as a meditation on how grief seeps into and changes the body.

    Written following the death of David Cronenberg’s wife (and initially conceived of as a Netflix series), Cronenberg has rejected the idea that it is fully autobiographical. It is, however, difficult to fully separate the director from the story.

    Cassel as Karsh physically resembles Cronenberg in the film, blurring the boundary between fiction and the personal. Physical duplication is a disorienting motif of the film. Kruger reappears as Becca’s sister Terri and as an animated AI assistant named Honey.

    Alongside the grotesque images of her decaying body, these versions of Kruger are especially striking. Cassel’s performance as the controlling and obsessive Karsh is nuanced and understated. His desire to monitor Becca’s decomposition is presented as a logical step to regain possession of her from her illness, and is deeply disturbing.

    It also has ominous and timely resonance in our modern world, where controversial technology exists that permits artificial intelligence to create avatars of the dead to comfort the bereaved.

    The film becomes a mimetic piece on grief, where boundaries between imagination and reality dissolve. Cronenberg’s frequent collaborator Howard Shore provides an ambient score that reinforces this dissolution. Ethereal and bass-rich, it features spacious, slowly evolving melodies wrapped in velvety synth textures which evoke a dream-like soundscape.

    As the plot progresses into a tangle of conspiracy theories, lines blur between Karsh’s dreams and reality. Background plots drift unresolved, characters are vaguely sketched. Themes of environmental activism versus capitalist enterprise, the exploitation of technology, illegal surveillance and government corruption are all threaded through the story, but none are fully realised. This is not a film which offers a straightforward narrative or closure. Like grief, it remains raw, fluid and difficult to contain.

    Throughout, the film returns to Becca’s decaying body, encased in a shroud that is described as both toxic and radioactive, an object of controversy for eco-activists. “She’s dead, remember, she can’t do anything,” Karsh’s companion reminds him.

    But this is not true for Becca. In death, her body is watched and consumed by systems of surveillance and ecological anxiety. Symbolising Alaimo’s concept of transcorporeality, Becca’s decaying corpse, wrapped in technology, but buried in the Earth, is deeply connected to the environment and cannot be separated from it. Her body is influenced by both its natural surroundings and social factors such as the shroud’s technology, outside interference and Karsh’s control.

    Karsh asserts that burial is a complex matter, converging politics, religion and economics. The Shrouds raises questions that touch on all of these, but provides no tangible answers. Some viewers will be frustrated by the film’s lack of logical structure and resolution. But it is also fair to say that this is how it mirrors the pathways of grief itself: unwieldy, unpredictable and consuming.

    Laura O’Flanagan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. The Shrouds: new Cronenberg film is an elusive meditation on death, grief and environmental ethics – https://theconversation.com/the-shrouds-new-cronenberg-film-is-an-elusive-meditation-on-death-grief-and-environmental-ethics-260009

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Norman Tebbit, Conservative minister known as Thatcher’s enforcer, dies at 94

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Martin Farr, Senior Lecturer in Contemporary British History, Newcastle University

    No man more embodied Thatcherism in the eyes of the public in the 1980s than Norman Tebbit, who died on July 7, aged 94.

    Though certainly no yuppie, Lord Tebbit entitled his memoirs Upwardly Mobile. Margaret’s Thatcher’s triumph was also his. She saw in the Essex MP just the uncompromising approach to transforming Britain to which she too was committed.

    Both had been disgusted by the Conservative government of Edward Heath blinking when it sought to face down trade unions in the early 1970s. The experience was elemental to their plan for government.

    Others were more important to the New Right/neoliberal project elected in 1979: Conservative minister Keith Joseph, and Thatcher’s two chancellors, Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson.

    But Tebbit provided something no one else in Thatcher’s cabinet could: an innate connection with white, working-class voters, who may once have been Labour – Tebbit lauded Clement Attlee and Ernest Bevin – but whose values were held to have been washed away in the postwar tide of union militancy, social permissiveness, European integration, and mass immigration.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    He became a Conservative almost because, rather than in spite, of his background. “Essex man” was a presiding personification of the period.

    Unlike almost all of Thatcher’s ministers, Tebbit did not go to university, but left school at 16 to encounter the “closed shop”: that one had to be a member of a particular union to work in a particular workplace. He became determined at that moment to end this practice, and with it so much else of postwar social democracy.

    Thirty years later he did, as Thatcher’s secretary of state for employment. Tebbit’s 1982 Employment Act avenged the unions’ defeat of Heath. Union rights were weakened, never to be restored, and those of employers emboldened. It was a significant contribution to Thatcherism’s ledger.

    As secretary of state for trade and industry, Tebbit pursued privatisation – the return (as its proponents, simply, put it) of nationalised industries to the private sector – with passion. The postwar settlement in Britain was being upended.

    Public image

    In an age before the televising of parliament (much less 24-hour news and social media), Tebbit cut through in a way few politicians did.

    At at a time of inner-city violence, the public knew Tebbit’s unemployed father, decades earlier, didn’t riot but “got on his bike and looked for work”. No one else could have been called – in the words of Labour’s Michael Foot – a “semi-house-trained polecat”. TV’s puppet satire Spitting Image portrayed him as the “Chingford Strangler”, dressed in biker leathers.

    Tebbit felt no need for his contempt for socialism to be leavened by charm or humour. There was invariably a slight sense of menace. He had no interest in ingratiating or propitiating. And so he was as loved by Conservative party members as he was hated by the left. He welcomed their hatred.

    Tebbit in particular despised the swinging 60s – fittingly, he entered parliament in the election in which Harold Wilson’s government was unexpectedly ejected – and its legacy of “insufferable, smug, sanctimonious, naive, guilt-ridden, wet, pink orthodoxy”. Thus his trenchancy on immigration, overseas aid (a “sink of iniquity, corruption and violence”), sexuality (he was one of the few still to use the word “sodomite”) and Europe (he was a Eurosceptic before Euroscepticism).

    In 1990 Tebbit asked of British-born people of Asian heritage: “Which side do they cheer for? Are you still harking back to where you came from or where you are?”. Tebbit’s “cricket test” is second only to Enoch Powell’s “rivers of blood” speech in the annals of inflammatory – they and their supporters would say candid – rhetoric relating to immigration. Neither would mind the association.



    Read more:
    Tory humiliation down to campaign length and cult of May – Norman Tebbit Q&A

    What silenced most – if not quite all – of his critics, was Tebbit at his most vulnerable. Following the IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel Brighton in 1984, live television footage of him, only partially clad in his pyjamas, covered in dust, being stretchered out of the rubble, became the defining image of the atrocity.

    The following year Thatcher moved him from trade and industry to, less happily, chairman of the Conservative party. It was a job that required a lighter touch than Tebbit’s.

    Nevertheless, as chairman, he delivered the Conservatives’ third election victory, of 1987 – ensuring the permanence of the transformation – only to immediately retire to the backbenches. Margaret, his wife, had been paralysed by the bomb, and he devoted himself to her care for more than 30 years until her death.

    As warranted as his departure from government may have been, Thatcher “bitterly regretted” losing him, a feeling she felt for few. Her defenestration in November 1990 is much harder to imagine had Tebbit still been in the cabinet.

    Norman Tebbit’s conservatism and nationalism harked back to an earlier age, yet presaged the populism of the 2020s. In his remarks following the news of Tebbit’s death, Nigel Farage said he thought him “a great man”.

    Tebbit’s values endure in public discourse, in more ways than he might have expected even a few years ago. But in his last months he was either unable, or unwilling, to say whether those values were those of the Conservatives, the traditional party of the right, or of another project. That may be a final Tebbit “test”.

    Martin Farr does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Norman Tebbit, Conservative minister known as Thatcher’s enforcer, dies at 94 – https://theconversation.com/norman-tebbit-conservative-minister-known-as-thatchers-enforcer-dies-at-94-260716

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Norman Tebbit, Conservative minister known as Thatcher’s enforcer, dies at 94

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Martin Farr, Senior Lecturer in Contemporary British History, Newcastle University

    No man more embodied Thatcherism in the eyes of the public in the 1980s than Norman Tebbit, who died on July 7, aged 94.

    Though certainly no yuppie, Lord Tebbit entitled his memoirs Upwardly Mobile. Margaret’s Thatcher’s triumph was also his. She saw in the Essex MP just the uncompromising approach to transforming Britain to which she too was committed.

    Both had been disgusted by the Conservative government of Edward Heath blinking when it sought to face down trade unions in the early 1970s. The experience was elemental to their plan for government.

    Others were more important to the New Right/neoliberal project elected in 1979: Conservative minister Keith Joseph, and Thatcher’s two chancellors, Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson.

    But Tebbit provided something no one else in Thatcher’s cabinet could: an innate connection with white, working-class voters, who may once have been Labour – Tebbit lauded Clement Attlee and Ernest Bevin – but whose values were held to have been washed away in the postwar tide of union militancy, social permissiveness, European integration, and mass immigration.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    He became a Conservative almost because, rather than in spite, of his background. “Essex man” was a presiding personification of the period.

    Unlike almost all of Thatcher’s ministers, Tebbit did not go to university, but left school at 16 to encounter the “closed shop”: that one had to be a member of a particular union to work in a particular workplace. He became determined at that moment to end this practice, and with it so much else of postwar social democracy.

    Thirty years later he did, as Thatcher’s secretary of state for employment. Tebbit’s 1982 Employment Act avenged the unions’ defeat of Heath. Union rights were weakened, never to be restored, and those of employers emboldened. It was a significant contribution to Thatcherism’s ledger.

    As secretary of state for trade and industry, Tebbit pursued privatisation – the return (as its proponents, simply, put it) of nationalised industries to the private sector – with passion. The postwar settlement in Britain was being upended.

    Public image

    In an age before the televising of parliament (much less 24-hour news and social media), Tebbit cut through in a way few politicians did.

    At at a time of inner-city violence, the public knew Tebbit’s unemployed father, decades earlier, didn’t riot but “got on his bike and looked for work”. No one else could have been called – in the words of Labour’s Michael Foot – a “semi-house-trained polecat”. TV’s puppet satire Spitting Image portrayed him as the “Chingford Strangler”, dressed in biker leathers.

    Tebbit felt no need for his contempt for socialism to be leavened by charm or humour. There was invariably a slight sense of menace. He had no interest in ingratiating or propitiating. And so he was as loved by Conservative party members as he was hated by the left. He welcomed their hatred.

    Tebbit in particular despised the swinging 60s – fittingly, he entered parliament in the election in which Harold Wilson’s government was unexpectedly ejected – and its legacy of “insufferable, smug, sanctimonious, naive, guilt-ridden, wet, pink orthodoxy”. Thus his trenchancy on immigration, overseas aid (a “sink of iniquity, corruption and violence”), sexuality (he was one of the few still to use the word “sodomite”) and Europe (he was a Eurosceptic before Euroscepticism).

    In 1990 Tebbit asked of British-born people of Asian heritage: “Which side do they cheer for? Are you still harking back to where you came from or where you are?”. Tebbit’s “cricket test” is second only to Enoch Powell’s “rivers of blood” speech in the annals of inflammatory – they and their supporters would say candid – rhetoric relating to immigration. Neither would mind the association.



    Read more:
    Tory humiliation down to campaign length and cult of May – Norman Tebbit Q&A

    What silenced most – if not quite all – of his critics, was Tebbit at his most vulnerable. Following the IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel Brighton in 1984, live television footage of him, only partially clad in his pyjamas, covered in dust, being stretchered out of the rubble, became the defining image of the atrocity.

    The following year Thatcher moved him from trade and industry to, less happily, chairman of the Conservative party. It was a job that required a lighter touch than Tebbit’s.

    Nevertheless, as chairman, he delivered the Conservatives’ third election victory, of 1987 – ensuring the permanence of the transformation – only to immediately retire to the backbenches. Margaret, his wife, had been paralysed by the bomb, and he devoted himself to her care for more than 30 years until her death.

    As warranted as his departure from government may have been, Thatcher “bitterly regretted” losing him, a feeling she felt for few. Her defenestration in November 1990 is much harder to imagine had Tebbit still been in the cabinet.

    Norman Tebbit’s conservatism and nationalism harked back to an earlier age, yet presaged the populism of the 2020s. In his remarks following the news of Tebbit’s death, Nigel Farage said he thought him “a great man”.

    Tebbit’s values endure in public discourse, in more ways than he might have expected even a few years ago. But in his last months he was either unable, or unwilling, to say whether those values were those of the Conservatives, the traditional party of the right, or of another project. That may be a final Tebbit “test”.

    Martin Farr does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Norman Tebbit, Conservative minister known as Thatcher’s enforcer, dies at 94 – https://theconversation.com/norman-tebbit-conservative-minister-known-as-thatchers-enforcer-dies-at-94-260716

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Why many kidney patients are still choosing hospital dialysis – and how the NHS can help more people access care at home

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Leah McLaughlin, Research Fellow in Health Services, Bangor University

    PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock

    Every week, thousands of people with kidney disease in the UK spend long hours in hospital receiving life-saving dialysis. For many, this means travelling to a kidney unit three times a week and sitting through sessions that last four hours or more. It’s a huge commitment that affects people’s ability to work, travel and maintain a normal social life.

    But for many with kidney failure, there’s another option: dialysis at home. It’s more flexible, often less disruptive and, in the long run, more cost-effective for the NHS. So why do most people still choose hospital dialysis?

    A parliamentary summit in May reflected on how to make dialysis more accessible to patients at home. My colleagues and I published research on this topic in 2019. Working in partnership with people who have kidney disease, their families, NHS staff, dialysis providers and kidney charities, we explored the barriers to home dialysis, and how to overcome them.

    People with kidney failure need either a transplant or regular dialysis to filter waste from their blood. Despite NHS guidance that at least 20% of people on dialysis should be supported to have this treatment at home, this target isn’t being met in many parts of the UK.

    A kidney dialysis machine.
    ali.can0707/Shutterstock

    Our research team, which included people who had experienced dialysis, held discussions with 50 people from across Wales. Many told us that hospital dialysis was presented by healthcare staff as the default option. For those who had not yet come to terms with needing dialysis, or who had delayed planning due to the unpredictable nature of kidney disease, hospital treatment felt like the path of least resistance.

    Some were concerned about the disruption home dialysis might bring. This included changes to their living space or worries that partners or family members might become their carers. Others valued the routine and regular social contact of hospital dialysis.

    Healthcare professionals may unintentionally reinforce this choice. Some feel more comfortable monitoring patients in clinical settings or are unsure about how to support home dialysis effectively. In some cases, home dialysis isn’t an option because local services don’t have the infrastructure to support it.

    Rather than simply identifying problems, we worked together to develop practical solutions. In 2021, working with patients, healthcare professionals, charities, commissioners and industry, we devised a new service plan that outlines how kidney services could be redesigned to support more people to choose home dialysis.

    One important finding was the power of talking to others already doing it. It’s not just about practical advice, but reassurance that it can work.

    We also identified the need for better training for both professionals and patients. People told us they wanted to understand their options earlier, ideally a year before dialysis starts. That means tackling difficult topics, such as advance care planning, sooner and with the right support.

    Social care also has an important role to play. People with complex needs – like living alone, having mobility challenges, or experiencing financial hardship – may need home support, welfare advice or help navigating the system.

    The cost of choice

    In a linked study, published in 2022, we analysed the costs of different dialysis options. Home dialysis was found to cost between £16,000 and £23,000 per person per year.

    Hospital dialysis costs more, between £20,000 and £24,000, rising to over £30,000 when ambulance transport is needed. This suggests that encouraging more people to have dialysis at home could deliver savings for the NHS.

    In Wales, where all kidney services are coordinated through a single clinical network, home dialysis is more widely available. But in England, services are more fragmented, so access can depend on where you live.

    Even if these changes were implemented, fundamental issues may still prevent progress. Beneath the surface of patient satisfaction lies a deeper problem – the NHS dialysis service is no longer working as intended.

    Transport is one of the most frequently cited concerns among people receiving hospital dialysis, and no one seems satisfied with current arrangements. But satisfaction surveys fail to capture the complexity of the situation.

    People often begin dialysis in a unit that isn’t closest to home due to availability. Later, when given the option to move closer or switch to home dialysis, they may decline. These dialysis units begin to function as surrogate families, offering comfort, routine and social interaction, especially for people who live alone or are isolated.

    This emotional connection can obscure the bigger picture. Patients may focus on transport as the issue, rather than recognising that their own decisions – shaped by understandable human needs and system design – are part of the wider challenge.

    shutterstock.
    ali.can0707/Shutterstock

    Staff are caught in the same dynamic. They worry about losing patients they’ve built relationships with or fear someone may not cope alone. But as a result, the service ends up operating not to help people live well for longer but to preserve a sense of satisfaction with a suboptimal status quo.

    By focusing too heavily on keeping people content with the status quo, we risk obscuring what’s truly working, or not. Worse, we may end up wasting already limited resources trying to fix problems that are byproducts of a system shaped more by sentiment than strategy.

    Meanwhile, staff are caught in the middle, trying to deliver care under mounting pressure, with increasingly blurred expectations.

    What needs to change

    To break out of this cycle, different questions should be asked, and not just whether people are satisfied, but whether they are living well, maintaining independence and receiving care that truly reflects their needs and values.

    Our research shows that people already on home dialysis are a valuable and underused resource. They can offer support and insight to others who are starting their treatment.

    The collaborative approach we used could be a model for other parts of the NHS. By designing services with people, not just for them, we can move closer to a future where more people live comfortably with kidney disease, and care that truly fits around their lives and not the other way round.

    Leah McLaughlin receives funding from Health and Care Research Wales. She is affiliated with the Wales Kidney Research Unit.

    We would like to acknowledge Dr Gareth Roberts Chief Investigator of the Dialysis Options and Choices study. Dr Gareth Roberts is a Consultant Nephrologist and Associate Medical Director at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board and is clinical lead of the Welsh Renal Clinical Network.

    – ref. Why many kidney patients are still choosing hospital dialysis – and how the NHS can help more people access care at home – https://theconversation.com/why-many-kidney-patients-are-still-choosing-hospital-dialysis-and-how-the-nhs-can-help-more-people-access-care-at-home-254747

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: The Shrouds: new Cronenberg film is an elusive meditation on death, grief and environmental ethics

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Laura O’Flanagan, PhD Candidate, School of English, Dublin City University

    American filmmaker David Cronenberg is a leading figure in body horror, a film genre that explores disturbing and often grotesque aspects of the human body. Films such as The Fly (1986), eXistenZ (1999) and Crimes of the Future (2022) depict scenes of physical mutilation, illness and technological invasion to represent deeper fears about identity, society and the human condition.

    Through intense bodily imagery, Cronenberg’s films raise powerful questions about human relationships with technology and nature. As our relationship with technology rapidly evolves alongside escalating environmental catastrophe, there is a timely significance in these ideas.

    His latest film, The Shrouds, evokes the writing of Stacy Alaimo, a scholar known for her work exploring the connections between the human body, the environment, and the social forces that shape both. Alaimo’s work combines feminist and materialist ideas and examines how our bodies are physically connected to the world around us – not separate from nature or society, but shaped by both ecological systems and social structures.

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    Like Cronenberg, Alaimo is interested in the entanglement of human flesh with more-than-human worlds, alongside the interplay between bodies and objects.

    In The Shrouds, the body, specifically that of Becca (Diane Kruger) is placed firmly at the centre of the story. Appearing both as a decaying corpse and naked in dream sequences, her body bears fresh surgical scars which are unbandaged and exposed.

    Becca’s body is shown as intensely vulnerable, a gendered depiction of femaleness which is controlled literally by the male gaze through the “shroud”, a piece of sci-fi wearable tech. It comprises a suit of MRI and X-ray cameras which encases a corpse, allowing decomposition to be monitored through a live video link with an app.

    This conceit embeds Becca both in the Earth and in technology, creating deeply memorable imagery which challenges viewers to think about death, grief and the environmental ethics surrounding human burial.

    The presentation of Becca’s body evokes Alaimo’s concept of transcorporeality. In her 2010 book Bodily Natures, Alaimo describes transcorporeality as the idea that “the human is ultimately inseparable from ‘the environment’” – continually transformed through interactions with the landscape, chemicals, technology and non-human forces. Becca’s corpse, decaying in real-time on a live link, highlights this connection.

    Grief: the fictional and the personal

    The film opens with Karsh (Vincent Kassel), Becca’s bereaved husband, in a dentist’s chair being told, “Grief is rotting your teeth”. The film as a whole can be read as a meditation on how grief seeps into and changes the body.

    Written following the death of David Cronenberg’s wife (and initially conceived of as a Netflix series), Cronenberg has rejected the idea that it is fully autobiographical. It is, however, difficult to fully separate the director from the story.

    Cassel as Karsh physically resembles Cronenberg in the film, blurring the boundary between fiction and the personal. Physical duplication is a disorienting motif of the film. Kruger reappears as Becca’s sister Terri and as an animated AI assistant named Honey.

    Alongside the grotesque images of her decaying body, these versions of Kruger are especially striking. Cassel’s performance as the controlling and obsessive Karsh is nuanced and understated. His desire to monitor Becca’s decomposition is presented as a logical step to regain possession of her from her illness, and is deeply disturbing.

    It also has ominous and timely resonance in our modern world, where controversial technology exists that permits artificial intelligence to create avatars of the dead to comfort the bereaved.

    The film becomes a mimetic piece on grief, where boundaries between imagination and reality dissolve. Cronenberg’s frequent collaborator Howard Shore provides an ambient score that reinforces this dissolution. Ethereal and bass-rich, it features spacious, slowly evolving melodies wrapped in velvety synth textures which evoke a dream-like soundscape.

    As the plot progresses into a tangle of conspiracy theories, lines blur between Karsh’s dreams and reality. Background plots drift unresolved, characters are vaguely sketched. Themes of environmental activism versus capitalist enterprise, the exploitation of technology, illegal surveillance and government corruption are all threaded through the story, but none are fully realised. This is not a film which offers a straightforward narrative or closure. Like grief, it remains raw, fluid and difficult to contain.

    Throughout, the film returns to Becca’s decaying body, encased in a shroud that is described as both toxic and radioactive, an object of controversy for eco-activists. “She’s dead, remember, she can’t do anything,” Karsh’s companion reminds him.

    But this is not true for Becca. In death, her body is watched and consumed by systems of surveillance and ecological anxiety. Symbolising Alaimo’s concept of transcorporeality, Becca’s decaying corpse, wrapped in technology, but buried in the Earth, is deeply connected to the environment and cannot be separated from it. Her body is influenced by both its natural surroundings and social factors such as the shroud’s technology, outside interference and Karsh’s control.

    Karsh asserts that burial is a complex matter, converging politics, religion and economics. The Shrouds raises questions that touch on all of these, but provides no tangible answers. Some viewers will be frustrated by the film’s lack of logical structure and resolution. But it is also fair to say that this is how it mirrors the pathways of grief itself: unwieldy, unpredictable and consuming.

    Laura O’Flanagan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. The Shrouds: new Cronenberg film is an elusive meditation on death, grief and environmental ethics – https://theconversation.com/the-shrouds-new-cronenberg-film-is-an-elusive-meditation-on-death-grief-and-environmental-ethics-260009

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Four reasons why many of us feel the global economy is not on our side

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Cahal Moran, Visiting Fellow in the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, London School of Economics and Political Science

    During my adult life, I have never experienced what it’s like to live in a “good” economy. Starting with the global financial crash in 2008, which hit just as I began studying economics, the world seems to have lurched from crisis to crisis and the UK economy even more so.

    Some of those crises, like the crash and COVID, are sudden shocks. Others have been more gradual, such as increasingly unaffordable housing or the rising dominance of the world’s ultra rich.

    As I explore in my new book, Why We’re Getting Poorer, the result of these crises is an economic system which works for some much more than it does for others. Here are four reasons why you may be feeling let down.

    1. Grasping for growth

    Like many of his fellow leaders across the world, the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, is aiming to make economic growth the primary mission of his government. And understandably so.

    A growing economy puts more money in people’s pockets and brings other benefits such as low unemployment. But economic growth is not easy (in the UK it has been poor for a long time).

    That’s because there’s no GDP dial that a prime minister or president can simply turn up. Research shows that economic growth is an amorphous and difficult goal which depends on many factors – geopolitical, demographic, technological – outside any single country’s control.

    One option is to focus on achievable goals around investment, like the public investments of £113 billion on homes, transport and energy planned in the UK. But big projects can take a long time to build and develop, so even if they do boost growth, it can take a while for households to feel the benefits.

    2. Inherent inequality

    Against the backdrop of low growth in the UK has been high inequality, under Conservative and Labour governments. And again, inequality is an international issue.

    The wealth of the richest people in the world skyrocketed over COVID, buoyed in many cases by the increased importance of the tech sector during lockdowns. Even before the pandemic, wealth inequality was a problem across the globe.

    This imbalance has given the very richest opportunities to buy up commercial competitors, indulge in space travel and control large parts of the media, exerting extreme economic, social and political power. Needless to say, their economic priorities are not the same as everyone else’s.

    Meanwhile, communities and regions may be left behind, with declining physical and social infrastructure. People living in hollowed out areas where incomes and opportunities are limited are unlikely to feel that the economic system is working for them.

    3. Globalisation

    Globalisation has made a lot of people – in places like China, India and Brazil – better off. But it is not a system which ensures economic benefits for everyone.

    With global competition, big businesses are often under pressure to reduce costs. Free trade deals have often failed to enforce labour standards or redistribute gains to poorly paid workers, and in many cases simply made the rich richer.

    Such a distorted form of economic governance, where large sections of society end up feeling left behind was bound to provoke a response. Some would link it to recent political events like Brexit and the presidencies of Donald Trump, whose international tariffs are a clear attempt to reverse the rise of globalisation.

    Sporadic supply chains.
    Corona Borealis Studio/Shutterstock

    Since the pandemic, more fault-lines have been exposed. The global economy has become too dependent on certain regions, epitomised by Taiwanese dominance in the manufacturing of semiconductors, or European reliance on Russia for gas and oil.

    Recent years have also seen supply chain bottlenecks, leading to shortages of goods including cars, phones and even salad ingredients. Inflexible global systems have been ineffective, and internationally agreed fixes are hard to achieve.

    4. Climate change

    World news at the start of 2020 was dominated by the massive wildfires raging across Australia. At the start of 2025, Los Angeles burned.

    As the global climate shifts and lurches, extreme weather events are becoming more common. Floods, hurricanes and extreme temperatures look to be the likely outcome.

    When sea levels rise, countless coastal cities will experience flooding, and many Pacific islands may disappear altogether. The UN’s climate science advisory group, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggests that humanity will struggle with food production, disease and massive migration.

    This will all result in huge economic costs, impeding growth and disrupting livelihoods across the world. According to the IPCC, the impacts could range from extreme weather events disrupting infrastructure to changing weather reducing yields in agriculture, forestry and fishing.

    Yet many countries appear to be backtracking on their commitment to reducing emissions. It seems they would prefer to deal with the fallout of climate change rather than invest in potential solutions like carbon taxes, walkable cities or alternative fuels. But such acts of self-harm are not a sound basis for a prosperous economy, society or planet.

    Cahal Moran does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Four reasons why many of us feel the global economy is not on our side – https://theconversation.com/four-reasons-why-many-of-us-feel-the-global-economy-is-not-on-our-side-252220

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Norman Tebbit, Conservative minister known as Thatcher’s enforcer, dies at 94

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Martin Farr, Senior Lecturer in Contemporary British History, Newcastle University

    No man more embodied Thatcherism in the eyes of the public in the 1980s than Norman Tebbit, who died on July 7, aged 94.

    Though certainly no yuppie, Lord Tebbit entitled his memoirs Upwardly Mobile. Margaret’s Thatcher’s triumph was also his. She saw in the Essex MP just the uncompromising approach to transforming Britain to which she too was committed.

    Both had been disgusted by the Conservative government of Edward Heath blinking when it sought to face down trade unions in the early 1970s. The experience was elemental to their plan for government.

    Others were more important to the New Right/neoliberal project elected in 1979: Conservative minister Keith Joseph, and Thatcher’s two chancellors, Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson.

    But Tebbit provided something no one else in Thatcher’s cabinet could: an innate connection with white, working-class voters, who may once have been Labour – Tebbit lauded Clement Attlee and Ernest Bevin – but whose values were held to have been washed away in the postwar tide of union militancy, social permissiveness, European integration, and mass immigration.

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    He became a Conservative almost because, rather than in spite, of his background. “Essex man” was a presiding personification of the period.

    Unlike almost all of Thatcher’s ministers, Tebbit did not go to university, but left school at 16 to encounter the “closed shop”: that one had to be a member of a particular union to work in a particular workplace. He became determined at that moment to end this practice, and with it so much else of postwar social democracy.

    Thirty years later he did, as Thatcher’s secretary of state for employment. Tebbit’s 1982 Employment Act avenged the unions’ defeat of Heath. Union rights were weakened, never to be restored, and those of employers emboldened. It was a significant contribution to Thatcherism’s ledger.

    As secretary of state for trade and industry, Tebbit pursued privatisation – the return (as its proponents, simply, put it) of nationalised industries to the private sector – with passion. The postwar settlement in Britain was being upended.

    Public image

    In an age before the televising of parliament (much less 24-hour news and social media), Tebbit cut through in a way few politicians did.

    At at a time of inner-city violence, the public knew Tebbit’s unemployed father, decades earlier, didn’t riot but “got on his bike and looked for work”. No one else could have been called – in the words of Labour’s Michael Foot – a “semi-house-trained polecat”. TV’s puppet satire Spitting Image portrayed him as the “Chingford Strangler”, dressed in biker leathers.

    Tebbit felt no need for his contempt for socialism to be leavened by charm or humour. There was invariably a slight sense of menace. He had no interest in ingratiating or propitiating. And so he was as loved by Conservative party members as he was hated by the left. He welcomed their hatred.

    Tebbit in particular despised the swinging 60s – fittingly, he entered parliament in the election in which Harold Wilson’s government was unexpectedly ejected – and its legacy of “insufferable, smug, sanctimonious, naive, guilt-ridden, wet, pink orthodoxy”. Thus his trenchancy on immigration, overseas aid (a “sink of iniquity, corruption and violence”), sexuality (he was one of the few still to use the word “sodomite”) and Europe (he was a Eurosceptic before Euroscepticism).

    In 1990 Tebbit asked of British-born people of Asian heritage: “Which side do they cheer for? Are you still harking back to where you came from or where you are?”. Tebbit’s “cricket test” is second only to Enoch Powell’s “rivers of blood” speech in the annals of inflammatory – they and their supporters would say candid – rhetoric relating to immigration. Neither would mind the association.



    Read more:
    Tory humiliation down to campaign length and cult of May – Norman Tebbit Q&A

    What silenced most – if not quite all – of his critics, was Tebbit at his most vulnerable. Following the IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel Brighton in 1984, live television footage of him, only partially clad in his pyjamas, covered in dust, being stretchered out of the rubble, became the defining image of the atrocity.

    The following year Thatcher moved him from trade and industry to, less happily, chairman of the Conservative party. It was a job that required a lighter touch than Tebbit’s.

    Nevertheless, as chairman, he delivered the Conservatives’ third election victory, of 1987 – ensuring the permanence of the transformation – only to immediately retire to the backbenches. Margaret, his wife, had been paralysed by the bomb, and he devoted himself to her care for more than 30 years until her death.

    As warranted as his departure from government may have been, Thatcher “bitterly regretted” losing him, a feeling she felt for few. Her defenestration in November 1990 is much harder to imagine had Tebbit still been in the cabinet.

    Norman Tebbit’s conservatism and nationalism harked back to an earlier age, yet presaged the populism of the 2020s. In his remarks following the news of Tebbit’s death, Nigel Farage said he thought him “a great man”.

    Tebbit’s values endure in public discourse, in more ways than he might have expected even a few years ago. But in his last months he was either unable, or unwilling, to say whether those values were those of the Conservatives, the traditional party of the right, or of another project. That may be a final Tebbit “test”.

    Martin Farr does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Norman Tebbit, Conservative minister known as Thatcher’s enforcer, dies at 94 – https://theconversation.com/norman-tebbit-conservative-minister-known-as-thatchers-enforcer-dies-at-94-260716

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: How to support someone who is grieving: five research-backed strategies

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Lucy Poxon, Senior Lecturer in Counselling Psychology, Department of Social Work Counselling & Social Care , School of Childhood and Social Care, University of East London

    PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock

    When someone we care about is grieving the loss of a loved one, our natural instinct is to ease their pain. But when words feel clumsy and gestures fall short, it can be hard to know how to help.

    Drawing on both my research as a counselling psychologist and 18 years of supporting bereaved clients in therapy, I’ve identified five compassionate, research-backed ways to walk alongside someone who is mourning.

    Whether you’re a close friend, family member, or caring colleague, these approaches will help you offer support in meaningful and authentic ways.

    1. Grief wears many disguises

    Our expectations of how grief should look are often shaped by culture, the media or personal experience, and they may bear little resemblance to how grief is actually lived.

    Grief can appear as physical symptoms like exhaustion, loss of appetite, or insomnia; as behaviour like withdrawing from others or drinking more; and as thoughts or emotions ranging from apathy and numbness to anger or intense sadness.

    It can be loud and overwhelming or quiet and barely perceptible. Some people feel deep sorrow immediately; others feel nothing for weeks or even months. A lack of overt sadness isn’t necessarily cause for concern; it may reflect relief that a loved one is no longer suffering, or be a sign of early adjustment.



    Read more:
    Not all mourning happens after bereavement – for some, grief can start years before the death of a loved one

    One of the most compassionate things you can do is validate whatever shape grief takes. Reassure the person that there’s no “right” way to grieve and support them in tuning into what their body and emotions need.

    2. Acknowledge the death and don’t rush the tears

    Nearly every grieving client I’ve worked with has described someone, often a friend, colleague, or even family member, who avoided or ignored them after the loss. It’s one of the most painful experiences for someone already feeling vulnerable.

    Often, the avoidance isn’t malicious. It’s driven by fear of saying the wrong thing or not knowing how to help. But by avoiding the subject, we send an unintended message: your grief is too much.

    Acknowledging the death, even simply by saying “I’m so sorry to hear about your loss”, is not a reminder of their pain, it’s a sign that you see it and honour it. Inviting someone out, even if they decline, communicates that they still belong and are welcome.

    If someone begins to cry, it’s natural to want to fix things, to offer comfort, or even to pass a tissue. But giving a tissue too soon can inadvertently signal that they should stop crying. Sometimes the most supportive thing you can do is to sit with your own discomfort, and simply be present. That silent witness can help a grieving person feel less alone.

    3. Let go of the “stages of grief” myth

    Many people are still taught to expect a tidy progression of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, popularised by Swiss-American psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in the 1960s. While these emotions are real and common, research shows that most people don’t experience them in a neat order, or even experience all five at all.

    Despite being widely critiqued, stage-based models are still found in healthcare training manuals and TV scripts, and they can leave people feeling like they’re grieving “wrong”.

    If your loved one is worried they should feel more sadness, or wonders why they haven’t yet felt angry, remind them: grief is personal and unpredictable. There’s no timeline, no script and no shame in not following one.

    Helping someone let go of these expectations may ease guilt, reduce internal pressure and encourage gentler self-care.

    4. Encourage communication – with the living and the lost

    Grief often comes with emotional loneliness, a deep sense of aloneness that persists even in the presence of others. It’s different from social isolation; it’s the ache of missing someone irreplaceable.



    Read more:
    What we can learn from death rites of the past will help us treat the dead and grieving better today

    While you can’t fix that loneliness, you can help the bereaved maintain a continuing bond with their loved one. This might include writing letters to the person who has died, speaking to them at a graveside or special place, saying prayers or engaging in meditation or creating memory boxes or rituals.

    These forms of connection can help integrate the loss into a new reality. You might offer to visit a meaningful place together, or support them in planning a small memorial gesture.

    5. Make specific, practical offers

    It’s common to say “Let me know if you need anything”, but for someone in deep grief, reaching out can feel impossible. Emotional overwhelm, fatigue and even shame can prevent them from asking for help, even when they desperately need it.

    Instead, make intentional, concrete offers that remove decision-making and emotional labour. These might include:

    • delivering a home-cooked meal once a week

    • taking care of pets or houseplants

    • helping with funeral admin or paperwork

    • offering regular lifts to appointments

    • updating others on their behalf

    • messaging with a clear “no need to reply” reassurance

    If you live far away, sending a card, text, or voice note can still be powerful; just be mindful that they may receive many, and feel pressure to respond. A line like, “No need to write back, just wanted you to know I’m thinking of you” can go a long way.

    Grief is not a puzzle to solve or a wound to fix. It’s a human response to love and loss – and it’s different for everyone.

    The most powerful thing you can do? Be there. Stay present. Listen without judgement. And remember that it’s okay not to have the perfect words. Showing up with authenticity, patience and compassion is what matters most.

    Lucy Poxon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. How to support someone who is grieving: five research-backed strategies – https://theconversation.com/how-to-support-someone-who-is-grieving-five-research-backed-strategies-260265

    MIL OSI Analysis –